Mayank Agarwal "attractive proposition" for teams looking for an opener: Manjrekar

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], November 16 (ANI): Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar said that Mayank Agarwal, who was released by Punjab Kings ahead of the IPL 2023 mini-auction in December, will be an attractive option for teams looking for an opener because of his high strike-rate and ability to play both spin and pace well.

Punjab Kings on Tuesday released their former skipper Mayank Agarwal, West Indies bowling all-rounder Odean Smith and some other players for the upcoming season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.

Speaking exclusively on Star Sports show 'IPL - Special Retention Show', Manjrekar said, "See, it is a very interesting case with Mayank Agarwal, for one, the price tag does not help when you have had a bad season. There is a temptation of releasing that player and using that money to maybe rebuy or you know, look at another option. But the thing about Mayank Agarwal? Too much of a nice guy, and this game is not for nice guys. I mean he had a phenomenal couple of seasons at the top of the order with KL Rahul. He actually out-batted KL Rahul at the top position, became the captain and ideally you would want one more year for a guy to prove himself."

"And the worst thing that could have happened to him was that he sacrificed his opening position where he was phenomenal, and went down the order. This meant that batting became more difficult and the runs did not come, the pressure built up. So, I feel sorry for him, but he will be a very very attractive proposition for teams looking for an opener, because this is the guy who will get you big scores and at a strike rate of 150, 160 and is good against both spin and pace," he concluded.

Agarwal, who was the mainstay of the side's top-order from 2019-21 and scored well, could only make 196 runs in 12 innings at an average of 16.33 and a strike rate of 122.50 since he was appointed the captain in 2022.

This was in stark contrast with his numbers in 2020 and 2021, in which he scored 424 and 441 runs respectively for the team.

PBKS have INR 32.2 crore in their purse, along with three slots for overseas players.

Punjab Kings:

Players released: Mayank Agarwal, Odean Smith, Vaibhav Arora, Benny Howell, Ishan Porel, Ansh Patel, Prerak Mankad, Sandeep Sharma, Writtick Chatterjee

Current squad: Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Shahrukh Khan, Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma, Raj Bawa, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Baltej Singh, Nathan Ellis, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar

In the last season, Punjab Kings had finished in the sixth position in the points table with 14 points and seven wins in 14 matches. (ANI)

Source: Sports