Indian batter Mayank Agarwal was acquired by Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 8.25 crore in the Indian Premier League 2023 Auction on Friday. He entered the auction with a base price of INR 1 crore.
Ahead of the 2023 Indian Premier League auction, the Punjab Kings released their star opener Mayank Agarwal, who had led the side in the previous edition of the league. Mayank joined Punjab Kings in 2018 and formed an explosive opening pairing with KL Rahul until the latter left the side earlier this year. Following KL Rahul’s exit from the franchise, Mayank took over the responsibility of the captaincy of the Kings. However, the side endured a disappointing season as they finished 6th in the points table – with 7 wins and as many losses in 14 games.
Mayank was the mainstay of its top order and was one of the consistent performers for the Punjab-based franchise, having scored 332 runs in 2019, 424 runs in 2020, and 441 runs in 2021. However, in 2022 when he took over the team’s captaincy he faced a major dip in his form and he could only score 196 runs in 13 games at an average of 16.33 with one half-century.
In the auction, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) entered the fray as they started the bid at 3.4 crores. SRH entered the bid with 4 Crore. Hyderabad then improved their bid with 5.75 Crore. The bids crossed 7 Crore. Eventually, SunRisers Hyderabad bought him for INR 8.25 crores.
Sanjay Manjrekar Hailed Mayank Agarwal
Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer turned commentator Sanjay Manjrekar took to his social media and expressed his happiness over Mayank Agarwal getting a good deal at the mini-auctions. In his Tweet, Sanjay Manjrekar hailed Mayank as a selfless top-order batter who can sacrifice his own interests for his team. He wrote:
“Especially happy that Mayank Agarwal found the right value & a new home in the IPL. Superb, selfless top order batter on whom captaincy was thrust which made him sacrifice his own interests for the team cause. Player with such qualities is any T20 team’s dream. #IPL2023Auction”
Check out the Tweet:
Especially happy that Mayank Agarwal found the right value & a new home in the IPL. Superb, selfless top order batter on whom captaincy was thrust which made him sacrifice his own interests for the team cause. Player with such qualities is any T20 team’s dream. #IPL2023Auction
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) December 24, 2022
Players bought by SRH at 2023 auction:
Harry Brook (INR 13.25 crore), Mayank Agarwal (INR 8.25 crore), Heinrich Klaasen (INR 5.25 crore), Adil Rashid (INR 2 crore), Mayank Markande (INR 50 lakh), Vivrant Sharma (INR 2.6 crore), Samarth Vyas (INR 20 lakh), Sanvir Singh (INR 20 lakh), Upendra Yadav (INR 25 lakh), Mayank Dagar (INR 1.8 crore), Nitish Kumar Reddy (INR 20 lakh), Akeal Hosein (INR 1 crore), Anmolpreet Singh (INR 20 lakh).
SRH FULL SQUAD FOR IPL 2023:
Abdul Samad, Aiden Markram, Rahul Tripathi, Glenn Phillips, Abhishek Sharma, Marco Jansen, Washington Sundar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kartik Tyagi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik, Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klaasen, Adil Rashid, Mayank Markande, Vivrant Sharma, Samarth Vyas, Sanvir Singh, Upendra Yadav, Mayank Dagar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akeal Hosein, Anmolpreet Singh.
