Among the senior players who were released by the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises ahead of the 2023 auction, Punjab Kings' Mayank Agarwal was a big name. He was the skipper of the side in IPL 2022. Under his leadership, Punjab finished sixth in the 10-team league. Mayank's personal form was also not great as he scored 196 runs in 13 matches at an average of 16.33. He was one of the nine players released by Punjab on Tuesday. Punjab are now left with INR 32.2 crore in their purse after the release of the nine players. Ahead of the IPL 2022, Mayank was retained for a price of INR 14 crore.
Former India player Sanjay Manjrekar shared his views after Agarwal was released by Punjab Kings. "See, it's a very interesting case with Mayank Agarwal, for one, the price tag doesn't help when you've had a bad season. There's a temptation of releasing that player and using that money to may be 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," Sanjay Manjrekar said on Star Sports.
"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. Which meant that batting became more difficult and the runs didn't come, the pressure built up. So, I feel sorry for him, but he'll be a very very attractive proposition for teams looking for an opener, because this is the guy who'll get you big scores and at a strike rate of 150, 160 and good against both spin and pace."
Punjab Kings Retained Players: Shikhar Dhawan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar, Raj Angad Bawa, Prabhsimran Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Jitesh Sharma, Baltej Singh Dhanda, Atharva Taide, Liam Livingstone, Kagiso Rabada, Jonny Bairstow, Nathan Ellis, Bhanuka Rajapakse
Released Players: Mayank Agarwal, Odean Smith, Vaibhav Arora, Benny Howell, Ishan Porel, Ansh Patel, Prerak Mankad, Sandeep Sharma, Writtick Chatterjee