“We are trying to get the best out of Jonny”: Mayank Agarwal explains why he didn’t open with Shikhar Dhawan in GT vs PBKS 2022 IPL match

Mayank Agarwal: The captain of Punjab Kings agreed to demote himself in the batting order at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy tonight.

Punjab Kings captain Mayank Agarwal believes that there’s “no better time” for them to win back-to-back matches in the ongoing 15th season of the Indian Premier League.

Kings, who registered their fifth victory of the season against Gujarat Titans tonight, have jumped to the fifth position on the points table. Having also lost five matches this season, Agarwal has a point in saying that collecting points is comparatively easier and less pressure-generating than playing do-or-die matches towards the end of the league stage.

With PBKS sealing a 144-run chase in 16 overs at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy tonight, Agarwal believed his bowlers “picking early wickets” followed by a match-winning partnership partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa powered them back to winning ways.

“I thought we bowled exceedingly well. We got early wickets and choked them in the middle. That really helped us to restrict them to a below-par score [143/8]. The partnership between Shikhar [Dhawan] and Bhanu [Bhanuka Rajapaksa] was crucial for us,” Agarwal told Star Sports during the post-match presentation ceremony.

Mayank Agarwal explains why he didn’t open with Shikhar Dhawan vs Gujarat Titans

The recently concluded match also put forward a rare scenario of a predominant opening batter such as Agarwal not getting to bat in an IPL match. With both himself (161 runs in eight innings) and Jonny Bairstow (80 runs in seven innings) not being in the best of forms, Punjab chose to tinker with their opening pair tonight.

Although the move didn’t bear fruits, Bairstow and Dhawan opened the innings. Rajapaksa, who has done well at No. 3, wasn’t moved from his position. Instead, Agarwal decided at bat at No. 4 in a bid to strengthen their middle-order.

That being said, Agarwal didn’t even bat at No. 4 as it was eventually decided that Liam Livingstone would go to bat if Rajapaksa gets dismissed. The same was decided to replace an attacking batter with a similar one. Dhawan, who plays more of an anchor role at Kings, would’ve been replaced by Agarwal.

Agarwal, who has batted in the middle-order in the IPL on 12 occasions across as many seasons in the past, has scored 148 runs at an average and strike rate of 13.45 and 139.62 respectively between No. 4 to 7.

“We are trying to get the best out of Jonny [Bairstow]. He’s done well opening. I said, ‘It’s okay, I’ll bat at four, I’ll anchor the innings at four’. With Livi [Liam Livingstone] it was clear, Shikhar [Dhawan] to bat through and Livi could go out and play the way he wants to play.

“It was nice the way he played, got the score quickly. When we got to that position, two points are almost clear, if we can score it as quickly as possible, we could also improve the Net Run-Rate,” Agarwal mentioned.