Punjab Kings (PBKS) new captain for IPL 2022: Senior batter Mayank Agarwal is likely to get the charge of the Mohali based Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise (Punjab Kings) for the upcoming fifteenth season of the tournament.
It is noteworthy that Mayank Agarwal was Punjab Kings one of the two retained players alongside young pacer Arshdeep Singh before the IPL 2022 Mega Auction.
The source privy to the development told PTI regarding the same.
“In all likelihood, Mayank will captain the side. The announcement is expected later this week,” an IPL source told PTI.
PBKS coach Anil Kumble, earlier, indicated that Mayank Agarwal will lead the side, however, with the purchase of heavyweight players in the auction like Shikhar Dhawan, the discussions took another turn with Dhawan coming in as a strong candidate to captain Punjab Kings in the IPL 2022.
Both Dhawan and Agarwal have their own shares of experience in leading an IPL franchise in the past. While the former has led SRH for the entire season, the latter had received the opportunity to lead PBKS in a couple of matches in the previous edition.
Shikhar Dhawan’s addition to the team intensified the discussions as he is a capable person to take the charge. However, the sources claimed that the management is keen to hand over reins to Mayank Agarwal.
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“Dhawan is a welcome addition to the side and was always on the radar at the auction. He is a champion player but it seems Punjab were keen on Mayank as captain ever since K L Rahul left the team,” the source added.
It is also noteworthy that PBKS strongly wanted to retain KL Rahul, as the captain, but the cricketer himself choose to part ways with the team and explore other opportunities. Rahul, later, went to Lucknow SuperGiants, one of the two new IPL teams, and will be captaining the side in the tournament.
Besides the purchase of opener batsman Shikhar Dhawan, Punjab Kings also managed to get the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone during the recently wrapped IPL auction.
The Mohali based IPL franchise that had made its maiden IPL final appearance way back in 2014 are aiming to end their title drought and fetch the glory for the first time in the forthcoming IPL 2022.
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