"Mayank Agarwal's batting has been affected" - Virender Sehwag wants PBKS skipper to play freely against GT in IPL 2022

Mayank Agarwal has not quite fired with the bat since taking over as PBKS captain. (P.C.:iplt20.com)

Legendary Indian opener Virender Sehwag feels that the burden of captaincy is clearly visible when Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper Mayank Agarwal walks out to bat. The 31-year-old had amassed above 400 runs in each of the past two seasons for the franchise.

However, since taking up the captaincy, Agarwal has scored just 37 runs in three games at a modest strike rate of 119.35. Virender Sehwag reckons he should give himself the license to attack the bowlers right from the get-go.

Showed great character tonight !

2 points ✅ @PunjabKingsIPL

#SaddaPunjab #SherSquad #IPL2022 https://t.co/0LTgudSD7i

Speaking to Cricbuzz, here's what Sehwag advised Agarwal about his batting:

"I am concerned about his batting. Since becoming captain, his batting has been affected. He was consistent last year with the bat. He should focus on his batting and forget about his captaincy when he walks out to bat. Because this is the only format that allows the batter to swing hard from ball one. See ball, hit ball."

Anil Kumble didn't even play a bowler like Bishnoi for 14 games for PBKS: Ajay Jadeja

PBKS have started well this IPL season, winning two out of their three games so far. While ideally they would not want to tinker with their winning combination, former Indian cricketer Ajay Jadeja feels head coach Anil Kumble has had a habit of changing the team's composition according to conditions.

Kumble’s fearless reds are back in action today https://t.co/mnfnQNHeH9

Although the batting looks strong, Jadeja feels there might be at least a couple of changes in the bowling department. On this, he stated:

"Things are going really well for them. But as we have seen with Anil Kumble, even last year they had a good team. But he believes in horses for courses and makes a couple of changes somewhere. He didn't play even a player like Bishnoi for 14 consecutive games. So this is his style and I feel he will make changes in bowling."

It will be interesting to see what strategy the fearless PBKS batting line-up will apply against a potent Gujarat Titans (GT) bowling line-up tonight.