3 reasons why SRH should drop Mayank Agarwal
We are now almost at the halfway point of the 16th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and things are beginning to heat up as far as the points table is concerned. Most teams have been extremely competitive, as the table suggests. Six teams have eight points in the bag, which proves the same.
However, one team that has not had a great run so far is Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), led by Aiden Markram. SRH are languishing in ninth position in the points table and will need to buck up soon if they want to have any hopes of qualifying. They play their next game on Monday (April 24) against the Delhi Capitals (DC), another team which is struggling.
As far as SRH is concerned, there has been a lot of criticism of one of their batters, Mayank Agarwal. Many have called for him to be dropped from the playing 11 for the game against the Capitals.
Mayank Agarwal averages 18.31 in IPL excluding the 2020 and 2021 IPL season.
📸: IPL
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Here's a look at three reasons why Agarwal should be left out of the team.
#1 Poor form
Mayank Agarwal, who was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad for a massive amount of 8.25 crores, has had a poor tournament so far. He has accumulated only 115 runs across six innings. In addition to his lack of runs, his strike rate of 106.48 is also disappointing.
Agarwal started the season as a top-order batter but failed to produce the goods. He scored 48 off 41 balls in SRH's previous game, failing to accelerate as Hyderabad fell short by 14 runs.
He was shifted lower down the order in SRH's last game against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), but that hasn't worked either. SRH doesn't really have the luxury of time and as such, leaving Agarwal out seems to be the right call.
#2 Overall IPL Record
Mayank Agarwal's overall record in the IPL is not one which makes him indispensable. He has played 119 games in the IPL so far and averages only 22.44. His strike-rate of 132 is not bad at all, but an indepth study exposes certain facts.
2020 and 2021 were the only years in which he had a great run in the IPL. If those two years are not considered, his average falls to 18.31 and strike-rate to 125.80 which is not really impressive.
So it's not like he's a gun of a batter in the IPL and therefore, SRH could consider dropping him.
#3 Lack of left-handers
Sunrisers Hyderabad's batting line-up is full of right-handers like Harry Brook, Mayank Agarwal, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, and Heinrich Klaasen.
Abhishek Sharma is the only left-hander in the line-up, making it quite easy for the opposition's skipper to trouble the right-hander's heavy SRH lineup by using favorable match-ups.
Therefore, SRH should consider including Vivrant Sharma, who has a good domestic record. He could come into the team in place of Mayank Agarwal, who could really do with a break at the moment.