One of the teams that had a successful outing in the mega auction was the Punjab Kings franchise. Ahead of the auction, the Punjab franchise had made only 2 retentions- Mayank Agarwal and Arshdeep Singh. They had the biggest purse heading into the event and fair enough to say, the Kings covered all the bases that they were required to fill.

England’s hard-hitting all-rounder Liam Livingstone was the most expensive buy made by the side. He was bought after an intense bidding duel for INR 11.5 Crore. The side was also successful in buying key players such as Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Odean Smith, Shahrukh khan, and U19 all-rounder Raj Bawa.

One of India’s current best opening batters, Mayank Agarwal was one of the two players retained by the side heading into the mega auction. Since being bought by Punjab Kings in the 2018 auction, the right-hander has had one of the most consistent runs in the tournament. The batter, originally from Karnataka was retained by the Kings for INR 12 Crore.

Since starting to play for the Kings, Agarwal has featured in 47 matches and has scored 1,317 runs. His only century in the IPL came against the Rajasthan Royals in 2020 when he scored 106. He came agonizingly close to his second IPL century in the 2021 season when he remained not out on 99 against the Delhi Capitals.

With the additional responsibility of a possible captaincy, it will be interesting to see how Mayank goes about his batting in the upcoming season.

Shikhar Dhawan is one of the most experienced batters to have played in the tournament. Dhawan’s name started a bidding war between the Rajasthan Royals and the Delhi Capitals. After RR left the bid at INR 4.8 Crores Punjab jumped in. After prolonged bidding, the southpaw finally went to the PBKS for a huge sum of INR 8.25 Crores.

In KL Rahul’s absence, Dhawan can be the perfect Indian opening option for the PBKS as he has quite the experience playing in one of the le.