After a critical 8-wicket victory over Gujarat Titans on Tuesday, Punjab Kings captain Mayank Agarwal has spoken up about the shift in his batting position in IPL 2022.
In the match against Gujarat, Punjab made significant changes to their batting line-up, with Mayank moving to the middle order and Jonny Bairstow opening the innings with Shikhar Dhawan.
Livingstone stepped down to bat at number 4 and struck 30 off just 10 balls to help his team to victory alongside Dhawan. Mayank didn't get a chance to bat. The PBKS captain wants his squad to keep up the momentum and win back-to-back games in future games.
Mayank claimed the squad is attempting to get the best out of Jonny Bairstow, who struggled in the middle order, by changing his batting position.
“We would like to string a few (wins), no better time than getting a few wins back-to-back. We’re trying to get the best out of Jonny. He’s done well opening the innings and I said I’ll go anchor at No. 4 and he can express himself," Mayank Agarwal said in a post-match presentation.
He also discussed the decision to move Livingstone up the batting order, saying it was a deliberate move to boost the team's net run rate.
“With Livi it was clear, Shikhar to bat through and Livi could out and play the way he wants to play. It was nice the way he played, got the score quickly. When we got to that position, two points are almost clear, if we can score it as quickly as possible, we could also improve the Net Run-Rate," he added.
Mayank also praised his bowling team for limiting Gujarat to a below-par score in the powerplay by taking early wickets.
“I thought we bowled exceedingly well, we got early wickets and choked them in the middle. That really helps us to restrict them to a below-par score. The partnership between Shikhar and Bhanu was crucial for us," he concluded.
(News18 inputs)
