Dhawan appointed as the new captain of the Punjab Kings

Shikhar Dhawan has been named the skipper of the Punjab Kings, replacing Mayank Agarwal for the IPL 2023 season.

The decision was taken at the franchise’s board meeting on Wednesday, 2nd of November. Earlier this year, Punjab Kings paid Rs 8.25 crore for Dhawan’s services at the mega auction.

The left-hand opening batter repaid the faith by putting up valuable performances, scoring 460 runs in 14 games at an average of 38.33 and a strike rate of 122.66.

Punjab Kings have also parted ways with coach Anil Kumble and appointed Trevor Bayliss as the new head coach.

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Mayank and Arshdeep Singh were the only retained players by the Kings ahead of the IPL mega-auction in February 2022.

Agarwal replaced KL Rahul as the captain for the 2022 edition after KL decided to move to Lucknow Super Giants. Punjab Kings blew hot and cold throughout the tournament, Agarwal’s form also took a hit as he managed to score just 196 runs at an average of 16.33.

Mayank is also struggling for consistency in domestic cricket tournaments and has also lost his place in the current Indian team setup. It will be interesting to see if Punjab Kings decide to retain their former captain ahead of the upcoming IPL 2023 mini-auction as teams have until November 15 to submit a list of the retained players.

Punjab Kings might release Mayank who cost them INR 12 crore when they retained him for the 2022 season.

The news of a change in captaincy was the talk of the town in the last few months but Punjab Kings had denied any such reports.

Dhawan as captain:

Dhawan was appointed as the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2013 season. Under his captaincy, the team went on to reach the play-off stage. Shikhar led Sunrisers Hyderabad in 16 matches and won 10 of those and lost 6.

Shikhar Dhawan was named the Indian captain for the ODI and T20 series against Sri Lanka and team India went on to win both series under his captaincy. Dhawan also led the Indian side in the ODI series against South Africa and won it by 2-1.