Mayank Agarwal-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) have had a lacklustre campaign in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. PBKS failed to qualify for the IPL 2022 playoffs as they could only win six matches in a total of 13 matches that they have played with a game in hand which they are playing against another ousted side Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday (May 22).
For the 15th season of the IPL, Agarwal took over the PBKS captaincy from KL Rahul, who is now leading a different franchise Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). In the previous season Agarwal scored 441 runs at an average of 40.09 but flopped with the willow in the IPL 2022 as he could only amass 195 runs in 13 matches with a lowly average of 17.73 which eventually affected PBKS performance in the tournament.
Meanwhile, India's former spinner Piyush Chawla questioned Agarwal's captaincy as he said that the latter's leadership impacted his performance as a batter which ultimately affected the team's performance.
In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Piyush Chawla was questioned whether Agarwal should be considered as a batsman plus skipper or just a batsman for the Kings next season. He didn’t state it outright, but he hinted at it when he said:
“Because of his performance last year, the Punjab Kings put a lot of faith in him and kept him, but he can not keep his word.” I don’t believe he had much previous leadership ability, whether it be in domestic cricket or even with India ‘A,’ and this showed in this game.”
“The burden of leadership is different, as evidenced by his batting and the fact that he used to appear tense on the field. Captaincy isn’t for everyone, and it was evident here.”
“On paper, their squad appeared to be a strong top-4 contender at the outset of the competition, and they performed admirably. But several hitters struggled in the middle, and I thought there was room for some batting order changes, which they did, but it was too late.”
“They also didn’t have much faith in some of the guys. So Punjab Kings had a poor season. They’ll have to see what they can do differently next year. It’s still a long way off, but the work has begun,” he further added.
