With an almost entirely new line-up, and a new captain, Punjab Kings started their IPL 2022 campaign in pursuit of their first silverware.
Five matches in, they have three wins under their belt and occupied the third spot in the league standings on Wednesday night, after a victory over former five-time champions Mumbai Indians.
The team's captain, Mayank Agarwal, spoke to The Quint about their campaign, the captaincy mantra he follows and also, their big find of the season – 28-year-old Jitesh Sharma.
Scouted by Anil Kumble, the Vidarbha cricketer has kept wickets in Jonny Bairstow's absence but his batting might was on full display against Mumbai when he changed the course of Punjab's innings by smashing Jaydev Unadkat for two fours and two sixes in the 18th over.
The team went from 151/4 in 17 to 174/4 in 18 as they finished at 198/5, a total that proved too high for Mumbai's power-packed batting line-up that fell 12 runs short.
"The big win for us has been Jitesh Sharma. The attitude with which he's played and the way he's come out and batted for us is beautiful," said Mayank when asked about his team's batting line-up that is looking among the strongest in the league this season.
With Shikhar Dhawan and him at the top, there's still Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livinstone that follow, after which we've seen Jitesh carve a spot out for himself alongside Shahrukh Khan.
"We do have a very strong batting line-up. It really feels nice that all of us are getting some runs and contributing. It's not just 2-3 players who are getting the runs. When Bhanuka (Rajapaksa) was playing, he put in the performances. Shikhar has been performing for every franchise that he's played for and he's doing that for us as well. Livingstone's really taken the IPL by storm and it was nice for me to get some runs in the last game as well," said he skipper.
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