The Punjab Kings management is all set to name, India batsman Shikhar Dhawan as their new skipper after the departure of KL Rahul to Lucknow Super Giants. Dhawan joined PBKS after being bought for Rs 8.25 crore at the IPL 2022 mega auction held in Bengaluru. Earlier, speculations were rife that Mayank Agarwal would be named the captain after the team retained the Karnataka batsman before the auctions. Dhawan if appointed would be the 14th player to lead the Punjab franchise since Yuvraj Singh led them in the first season of the IPL.
Dhawan was also the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2014 before he was replaced by West Indies all-rounder Daren Sammy in the middle of the season. Dhawan has played 192 IPL matches for Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad over the years. He aggregates 5783 runs at the strike rate of 126.63 and averages 34.63, he has 44 50-plus scores and a couple of hundreds to his name. In IPL 2021, Dhawan was the leading run-scorer for Capitals with 587 runs from 16 innings. The southpaw was released by the franchise during the IPL 2022 retention window.
