Mayank Agarwal to lead Punjab Kings in IPL 2022 - Reports

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With the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 approaching fast, its fever is set to grip the fans. The mega auction, which was held almost 10 days ago, gave a glimpse of what is to come as all the franchises poured in a whopping sum of money to bolster their squad for the upcoming season.


Talking specifically about Punjab Kings (PBKS), the franchise had the largest purse of Rs. 72 crore heading into the auction, which was mostly spent to get the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Shahrukh Khan and Jonny Bairstow.


The Punjab-based team already had retained Mayank Agarwal, who was touted to be their sure-shot captain for the upcoming IPL season. However, Dhawan's inclusion made things interesting as he has leadership experience by his side.


But the franchise now seems to have zeroed in their skipper as an IPL source informed that Mayank has trumped his senior Dhawan in the race. Speaking to the Press Trust of India, the source mentioned that the Karnataka-born batter is an ideal fit for the captaincy role and an announcement of his appointment will be made official later this week.


"In all likelihood, Mayank will captain the side. The announcement is expected later this week," an IPL source said as quoted to PTI.


"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 KL Rahul left the team," he added.


After KL Rahul, Mayank has been the highest run-scorer for PBKS in the last two seasons of the cash-rich league. The 31-year-old made his IPL debut, playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore but came to the fore since associating with Punjab. Now that Mayank is likely to don the captain's hat, Punjab would be hoping for their trophy drought to end under his leadership.

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