Former Indian opener, Aakash Chopra has opined that Punjab Kings should have gone for an Indian batter in the IPL 2023 Auction after letting go of Mayank Agarwal and feels it could prove to be their Achilles heel in the next season. PBKS parted ways with Agarwal ahead of the auction and he was bought by SunRisers Hyderabad. The Mohali-based franchise made Sam Curran the most expensive buy in the history of IPL Auctions as they paid 18.5 crores to get him.
Talking about the same in the latest video on his YouTube channel, as quoted by Sportskeeda, Aakash Chopra wasn’t fully impressed with the auction PBKS had last week and said they could have done better. He said they should have gone for at least one Indian batter after letting go of Agarwal. Chopra said the franchise could have approached Manish Pandey and also could have kept a foreigner.
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Elaborating the same, Aakash Chopra said, “It was a middling sort of auction. They could have done slightly better. They haven’t resolved their problems entirely. When you let Mayank Agarwal go, you should have gone towards at least one Indian batter. Not that many options were there, I do understand, but there was Manish Pandey available. If you wanted, you could have gone towards him. You didn’t go towards any name. You could have kept a foreigner.”
The former Indian opener also said he wanted PBKS to go for one of Rilee Rossouw, Reeza Hendricks, or Rassie van der Dussen. He stressed the fact the absence of an Indian batter could prove to be the weak point.
Explaining the same, Aakash Chopra said, “You have Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Liam Livingstone as your two overseas contingent batters to play in the middle order besides Jonny Bairstow, who is an opener. I wanted them to pick one of Rilee Rossouw, Reeza Hendricks or Rassie van der Dussen. There were options available.”
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He further added, “They didn’t go towards anyone. So I am a little surprised. When you see the team, Bairstow will play, you will play Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran and one of Kagiso Rabada or Nathan Ellis is going to play. So you probably needed an Indian but they have not gone there. So that could actually be their Achilles heel.”
