Wasn’t expecting Mayank Agarwal to take the axe upon himself, says Ajay Jadeja on PBKS skipper’s batting demotion – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Former India cricketer Ajay Jadeja feels that Punjab Kings captain Mayank Agarwal’s decision to demote himself in the batting order has the capability to sort out the issues plaguing the team’s run-scoring abilities.

Punjab Kings returned to winnings ways in IPL with a comfortable win over Gujarat Titans on Tuesday as the team chased down the target of 144 in just 16 overs.

However, there was some surprise as the chase began. Mayank, a natural opener, didn’t come down to resume the chase instead Jonny Bairstow opened alongside Shikhar Dhawan. As it planned out, Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Liam Livingstone were the others to bat for PBKS as they won by eight wickets.

Pragyan Ojha wants Mayank Agarwal to bat at No 3 for PBKS. Image: Sportzpics

Mayank has struggled for runs this season, scoring just 161 of them in nine matches at a strike rate of 128.80.

The Karnataka cricketer wasn’t required to bat against Gujarat and Jadeja said that he wasn’t expecting the Indian opener to take the “axe upon himself”.

“I was not expecting Mayank to take the axe upon himself and demote himself down the order. That is a big decision to take for a captain. If you see what is best for him, it is the opening slot but if you look at the team resources, this batting lineup, has people just coming in one after the other,” Jadeja told Cricbuzz.

“You ask a bowler if you are up against a team which has Bairstow at the top then Rajapaksa walks in and then Livingstone then they will have no option to get all of them out to breathe a sigh of relief.”

Meanwhile, another former India cricketer, Pragyan Ojha, said that the opening combination of Bairstow and Dhawan is the right move for Punjab but Mayank should be batting at No 3.

“Mayank Agarwal can be used in a versatile manner. I think he will come at No. 3 and the template will remain the same, but the roles will change just slightly. If Punjab keeps winning, then it will seem that there are no teams better than them,” Ojha said.

“I believe that in the shortest format, if you open with Bairstow, he will give you starts and it fits well with the brand of cricket that Punjab are playing. So, it was a good move. Mayank knew that he was not getting the runs, so he gave himself a break, it was a mature thing to do. If you keep playing, you get stuck mentally after a point of time. I think he should come in at No.3 and Bairstow should get more chances at the top. If he plays well there, Punjab will not turn back.”

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