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The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Punjab Kings (PBKS) have picked up some prominent players in their squad for the upcoming edition of the tournament.
They bought international stars like Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Kagiso Rabada at the recently-concluded mega-auction.
However, it will be interesting to see who will be leading the Mohali-based franchise in IPL 2022. As per several reports, Dhawan is the front runner to be named as PBKS captain.
During an interview with News9 Sports, Mohit Burman, the franchise’s co-owner, shared his thoughts of building a strong squad around the senior players.
“I think it’s a big advantage to have a senior player who has played with you before to lead the team. He [Dhawan] understands the thinking of the coach. He has a good rapport with the coaches and the idea is to give him a strong bunch of players who fill up all the positions,” said Burman.
The franchise bought Dhawan for a whopping price of Rs 8.25 crore at the mega-auction.
The left-handed opener had represented Delhi Capitals (DC) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the previous IPL editions and is among the top run-getters of the lucrative league.
Dhawan led Team India’s white-ball squad on their last tour of Sri Lanka when the other team was competing against England in the UK.
“Our strategy was to put very strong lieutenants in every position so it would be much easier for the captain to not only lead but be a team player. Therefore, I wanted to give an equal playing side which will come across as a strong team than to have one strong leader,” added Burman.
Punjab Kings squad for IPL 2022:
Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Prerak Mankad, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Shahrukh Khan, Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Benny Howell, Baltej Singh, Ansh Patel, Liam Livingstone, Rishi Dhawan, Atharva Taide, Odean Smith, Raj Bawa, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh, Writtick Chatterjee, Sandeep Sharma, Nathan Elis, Vaibhav Arora, Ishan Porel, Rahul Chahar.
