Punjab Kings’ new skipper Mayank Agarwal believes that the Kings have assembled a “title-winning team” at the mega-auction. Agarwal was named the new captain of Punjab Kings following KL Rahul’s exit, the opener who led the franchise in the last two seasons but finished in the bottom half of the table both times.
Punjab have roped in some proven big-name international players such as Shikhar Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone while have quality Indian youngsters like Arshdeep Singh, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Chahar.
In his first season as a full-time captain, Agarwal said that there are plenty of experienced players in the squad who will help him with his duties.
The opener asserted that the franchise had planned according to this season as well as looking at the future before heading into the mega-auction, and feels Punjab Kings have a strong unit capable of clinching their maiden IPL trophy this year.
“I’m just a hitter when I’m batting. The team has a lot of leadership and experience, which makes things easier for me. I want to improve as a batter and continue to do what I’ve been doing,” Agarwal said.
“We’ve devised a strategy for moving the squad ahead. We would like to think we have such a title-winning team, but now it’s up to us as players putting our skills to work under strain to see what we can come up with,” he added.
Agarwal has been with Punjab Kings since 2018, but has built a name as a T20 batter in the past two years, scoring 424 runs at strike rate of 156 and 441 runs at strike rate of 140 in 2020 and 2021 respectively, and has been the aggressor at the top for Punjab.
Punjab’s first game of IPL 2022 is against Royal Challengers Bangalore to be played at the DY Patil Stadium on March 27.
Punjab Kings squad for IPL 2022:
Mayank Agarwal (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Shahrukh Khan, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Ishan Porel, Liam Livingstone, Odeon Smith, Sandeep Sharma, Raj Angad Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Prerak Mankad, Vaibhav Arora, Writtick Chatterjee, Baltej Dhanda, Ansh Patel, Nathan Ellis, Atharva Taide, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Benny Howell
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