After being retained for a whopping INR 14 crore by the Punjab franchise ahead of the 2022 edition of the Indian T20 League, things went from bad to worse for Mayank Agarwal, the Indian opener, as his form dipped in the edition and eventually, the player was released for the 2023 edition on November 15, Tuesday.
While Punjab will be either looking to rebuy for a lower price or might want to let him go, Agarwal, on the other hand, would be hoping to make it to a team that might value his position as an opener and let him stay in the franchise for a few years.
Sanjay Manjrekar, the former Indian cricketer, claimed that Agarwal’s case was a mystery and added that he was too much of a nice guy that he was forced to get away from the team eventually. Manjrekar requested the other franchises to look up to Agarwal as a potential opener and also backed the player by saying that he can bat at a strike rate of over 150.
Mayank Agarwal is too much of nice guy: Sanjay Manjrekar
Manjrekar, who further said that Agarwal deserved to stay with the franchise, claimed that the right-handed batter was sacrificing his opening slot for the betterment of the Punjab franchise, which eventually became one of the reasons for his dip in form.
“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,” 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,” said the former cricketer further.
“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,” he added.
