IPL 2023: 5 franchises that might pick Mayank Agarwal at auction

Mayank Agarwal is one of the leading opening batters in the Indian circuit. After amassing a truckload of runs in domestic competitions like Ranji Trophy among others, the 31-year-old proved his mettle in the Indian Premier League and also in the international circuit.

Talking about the lucrative T20 tournament, Mayank has featured in 113 games and accumulated 2327 runs at a strike rate of 134.28. He has the ability to take top-quality attacks to the cleaners and can also steady the ship if the team is in trouble. 

Punjab Kings retained the India batter for INR 12 CR for the 2022 season and handed over the leadership duties to him. However, after a horrid campaign in the 15th edition of the tournament which saw PBKS failing to reach the playoffs, Mayank was removed from captaincy. Further, there have been reports that state that he will be released ahead of the 2023 IPL auction. 

If there is any truth in the speculations, Mayank will feature at the upcoming auction and many franchises will target the elegant batter.

Here are the five franchises that could Mayank Agarwal at the forthcoming auction:

5. Kolkata Knight Riders 

Kolkata Knight Riders picked Ajinkya Rahane for the 2022 season and entrusted him with the opening slot. However, the veteran cricketer was not able to perform as per expectations. He featured in seven games and could manage just 133 runs at a poor strike rate of 103.91.

KKR slotted in many players such as Aaron Finch, Baba Indrajith, Sam Billings, Sunil Narine, and Abhijeet Tomar for the opening role but none of them were able to set the stage ablaze with their performances. Thus, Shreyas Iyer & co. struggled to get solid starts on most of the occasions which proved to be one of the reasons behind their miserable campaign.

Given Kolkata’s opening-slot conundrum, they would like to add a top-drawer batter for that role. With Mayank up for grabs at the upcoming auction, KKR could go all guns blazing to rope the Indian stroke maker in.