Punjab Kings’ hopes of making it to the playoffs were left hanging by a thread following their defeat to Delhi Capitals on Monday. It was another tumultuous night for Punjab Kings captain Mayank Agarwal with the bat, dismissed for a two-ball duck by Axar Patel. In the end, PBKS failed to chase down the 160-run target, falling short by 17 runs. It meant that PBKS will now have to rely on other teams doing them a favour, if they are to have any chance of making into the top four.
It was another tough night for PBKS skipper Mayank Agarwal. After a string of poor performances, the stylish right-hander had dropped down the order so that England star Jonny Bairstow could open the innings.
But despite his prowess of playing spin bowling well, Agarwal’s struggles have continued.
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar feels that Agarwal is short on confidence, and not the same batter that he was last season.
“It wasn’t an easy position for him to come and make a match or win the game (against Delhi Capitals on Monday). But he has that kind of experience, he has the skills. In fact, even in the Test level, when you see him hitting sixes, he does that against spinners. So, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be getting runs. But this is a guy who is short on confidence. He’s not the same batter that he was last season,” Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 TIME:OUT show.
Former India spinner Piyush Chawla said burden of captaincy is showing on Mayank Agarwal.
“I don’t know how much he has captained in the domestic cricket and all because captaincy is a huge responsibility. When the burden comes on your shoulder, it clearly shows on the field. We have seen that with Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) and now we are witnessing that here with Mayank Agarwal as well. He had to sacrifice his position because he was not getting runs at the top of the order,” said Chawla.
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“He came lower down the order, he’s a very good player of spin bowling as well, but that confidence is not there at the moment. He just needs that one big innings — even like good 40 runs — is going to work for him. It’s not coming for him at the moment and that’s really disappointing to see,” he added.
Mayank Agarwal has scored 195 runs in 11 innings in IPL 2022 at an average of 17.73 with just a half-century to his name.
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