"I will say don't do that" - Aakash Chopra on Mayank Agarwal as SunRisers Hyderabad's captain
Aakash Chopra reckons SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) should not burden Mayank Agarwal with the pressure of captaincy in IPL 2023.
SRH bought Mayank for ₹8.25 crore at the IPL 2023 auction. The Hyderabad-based franchise acquired 13 players at the auction, with Harry Brook (₹13.25 crore) and Heinrich Klaasen (₹5.25 crore) being their other big-ticket buys.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra opined that the SunRisers should appoint Bhuvneshwar Kumar as their captain ahead of Mayank, reasoning:
"I feel they should make Bhuvneshwar Kumar the captain. Mayank Agarwal is an option. But I will say don't do that because the guy plays amazingly well and the one year he has played as captain, it has not been good. Why should you put pressure?"
The former Indian opener praised the SRH think tank for not running after a big-ticket all-rounder despite the huge purse at their disposal, explaining:
"They have made an extremely good team. They have spent money with the thinking that they need specialists, that they don't need to break the bank for all-rounders, for the simple reason that you can make up for the all-rounder's absence through the impact player."
Chopra reckons SunRisers Hyderabad could use Abdul Samad as their impact player if they bat second. He added that either Umran Malik or T Natarajan could be used as an impact player if they're defending a target.
"The only guy they could not get was Ben Stokes" - Aakash Chopra on SunRisers Hyderabad acquiring most players they wanted
Chopra highlighted that Ben Stokes was probably the only player in their scheme of things that SunRisers Hyderabad failed to acquire, observing:
"We all felt no one will be able to stop them when they put in their bids. They had 42 crores. They placed bids on 13 players and got 12 of them. The only guy they could not get was Ben Stokes and I don't think they mind because they didn't see Ben Stokes from the captaincy viewpoint."
The reputed commentator was all praise for Sunrisers Hyderabad for picking Indian top-order batters and keeping the more difficult middle-order roles for overseas players, saying:
"They have got Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi. They said they won't be able to give a place to Ben Stokes in the top three - fair point. To have three Indians at the top, I absolutely adore that idea. After that, you have kept three overseas players to do the difficult job."
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Aiden Markram and Brook will likely bat at Nos. 4 and 5 for the IPL 2016 champions. They could choose between Klaasen and Glenn Phillips for the finisher's role, apart from donning the wicketkeeping gloves.