Punjab Kings will take on Royal Challengers from Bangalore in their first game of 2022 IPL Season on 27th of March 2022 at Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai in an evening game.
Punjab Kings will be led by a new skipper in form of Mayank Agarwal. He was recently appointed as the captain of the franchise after KL Rahul the captain of last year for the Kings decided to opt-out of the franchise following IPL 2021.
Former Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble has been head coach of the Punjab kings for the last few seasons and In 2021, The approach of the Punjab Kings captain KL Rahul was criticized on various occasions. It was guessed that the management of Punjab kings decided to go with the tentative approach at the start considering the inexperienced middle order of the team. It can be seen that last year both the openers Mayank and Rahul were playing with a cautious approach till the 15 overs and then accelerating in the last 5 overs.
In an Interview, The former leg spinner, and current head coach of Punjab Kings was asked about the approach of the openers Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal going into the upcoming season. Kumble also provided clarification on Rahul’s approach in the last season –
“No, I don’t think we ever wanted any player to restrain himself. In this format, I don’t think you can take a conservative approach. The natural ability of a Mayank or a Shikhar (Dhawan) is to attack. Even with the rest of the players, I don’t think there will be any approach to curb their instincts. That has never been my approach at all” Says the head coach.
It will be a fresh start for all the franchises with some new faces and also for the Punjab Kings who are going with the new captain Mayank Agarwal, With IPL 2022 is just around the corner It will be interesting to see the approach from Punjab after receiving criticism last time around.
“Don’t think we ever wanted any player to restrain himself.” – Anil Kumble (On KL Rahul or any other players’ Strike Rate issue)
— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) March 18, 2022
