"He is very fearless, very selfless" - Former Indian cricketer feels SRH will go after Mayank Agarwal in IPL 2023 auction

Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan believes Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) might go all out to secure the services of former Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Mayank Agarwal at the IPL 2023 auction.

After a poor IPL 2022 season in which he scored just 196 runs from 13 games, Agarwal was shown the door by the PBKS management. However, Pathan noted how selfless the opener was during his lone season as captain, as he often pushed himself down the order to accommodate other top-order batters.

Speaking on the Star Sports show 'Game Plan', Irfan Pathan explained how Sunrisers Hyderabad will benefit from the purchase of Mayank Agarwal. He said:

"SRH will go after Mayank Agarwal because they need a kind of aggressive opener as well. They don’t have Kane Williamson right now who led them for many years as an experienced player and who used to open the innings as well.

"Mayank Agarwal is the kind of guy who has led a side, who plays quite freely as well, very fearless, very selfless. They might be thinking of him going forward as a leader as well."

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PBKS, SRH will go hard for Adam Zampa: Irfan Pathan

The Sunrisers (INR 42.25 crore) and the Kings (INR 32.20 crore) have the two biggest purses coming into the IPL 2023 auction and Pathan expects them to bully other teams during bidding wars for star players. One such player that the former all-rounder feels will be in demand is Australian leggie Adam Zampa.

On this, Pathan stated:

"When you don’t have a proper playing eleven which Punjab and SRH don’t have, that means they have a big bank balance and that means they need to be very smart, they need to be aggressive as well in these auctions because they have the muscle power and I think Adam Zampa, they will go after him from the word go."

It will be interesting to see whether Punjab and Hyderabad will be successful in spoiling the party of other teams during the IPL 2023 auction.