Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Punjab Kings (PBKS) have included some big names in their squad during the recently concluded IPL 2022 mega-auction. They assembled the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Kagiso Rabada, and Mayank Agarwal, who was already retained.

Now, it will be interesting to see who is going to lead the PBKS squad in the upcoming IPL season. There was speculation that Dhawan might be their new captain.

In an interview with News9 Sports, Mohit Burman, co-owner of the franchise, spoke on their idea of having a strong team with a senior player. Dhawan was bought by the franchise for INR 8.25 crore in the mega-auction. 

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"I think it’s a big advantage to have a senior player who has played with you before to lead the team. He understands the thinking of the coach. He has a good rapport with the coaches and the idea is to give him a strong bunch of players who fill up all the positions," he added.

Dhawan was part of Delhi Capitals (DC) in the previous seasons and he has been a consistent scorer in the IPL over the years. The senior batter had led Team India last year on the Sri Lanka tour. 

"Our strategy was to put very strong lieutenants in every position so it would be much easier for the captain to not only lead but be a team player. Therefore, I wanted to give an equal playing side which will come across as a strong team than to have one strong leader," Burman said.

Punjab had the biggest purse heading into the IPL 2022 auction with a total of Rs 72 crore. They retained only two players, Mayank (Rs 12 crore), and Arshdeep Singh (Rs 4 crore).

(With News9 Sports Inputs)