New Delhi, Nov 21 Mayank Agarawal has been a part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) ecosystem since 2011, and has played for five teams – Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Delhi Capitals, Rising Pune Supergiant, Punjab Kings, and Sunrisers Hyderabad – while amassing 2661 runs in 127 games.
He also holds the distinction of being the second-fastest Indian batter to score an IPL hundred in 45 balls after Yusuf Pathan hit one in 37 balls. In his experience of playing the IPL, Agarawal believes the tournament has brought big changes to playing T20s.
“IPL has really made the game get faster and faster. It's presented a lot more opportunities to find ways to improve your game, to come out with new shots, or to apply different strategies of pacing your innings,” he said.
“The more games you've played over the years, the experience has really, really helped in becoming the best and taking batting to another level,” Agarawal said in a telephonic conversation with IANS on Thursday.
With the IPL 2025 mega auction coming up in Jeddah on November 24 and 25, Agarawal will be amongst 574 players in the reckoning to get a new franchise ahead of next year’s tournament. Agarawal’s time in IPL 2023 and 2024 didn’t yield big runs, but the right-handed batter says that stint helped him explore ultra-aggressive T20 batting, which took the tournament by storm this year.
“I think there is a lot of excitement. Again, it's a mega auction, so there will be a lot of shuffling. A lot of players will play for different teams. So, there is a lot of excitement. I got a lot of time to work on my T20 game and also been part of SRH which played a very aggressive brand of cricket. So, being in close quarters there, I got to understand and learn and actually have a lot of time to practice and play that sort of cricket as well,” he adds.
The IPL 2025 mega auction will be held in the backdrop of the Impact Player Rule for the first time, and that could mean a change in strategy by teams.
“Yes, once that rule comes, I think teams now look at more specialist skills because you have that extra player. So, you can just go for specialists rather than more all-rounders is what I feel, and then with that, each team will now look to look to see how we can field the best 12,” opined Agarawal.
In the ongoing domestic season, where various franchise scouts have made a beeline to see potential IPL players in action, Agarawal has been quietly going about his business – like making his 18th first-class hundred in Karnataka’s eight-wicket win over Bihar in Patna.
Next up for him and Karnataka will be the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 matches, where the two-time champions are slotted alongside Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Baroda, Sikkim and Tripura in Group B games in Indore.
“It's been all right and I'm quite happy with the way I batted, got a hundred in the Ranji Trophy as well. So, quite happy with the way I'm batting and I'm sure even bigger scores and more runs will come in the coming games.”
“We've built a good team, having played the Maharaja T20 league this season, and have had a lot of players who are in T20 rhythm. So, we're quite happy with the way we've trained and are really looking forward to playing the tournament. A lot of the guys have done really well and we're really excited; so it's going to be a lot of fun,” he concluded.
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