"Mayank Agarwal may not cross double digits" - Aakash Chopra on IPL 2023 auction

Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra feels the demand for Indian batters like Mayank Agarwal will be pretty less compared to the bowlers and all-rounders in the IPL 2023 auction. He opined that most teams are pretty sorted in their batting department and may not go hard for the batters available, capped or uncapped.

Agarwal is arguably the biggest name available in the auction among Indian batters. Many believe that he could go for a pretty high price due to his attacking batting as well as his leadership ability.

However, in a video on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra explained why Mayank Agarwal may not cross the 10 crore mark in the IPL 2023 auction. He said:

"Indian batters will most probably go for pretty cheap, probably even at base price, with Mayank Agarwal as an exception. I am not expecting teams bidding in crores to get Indian batters. Even Mayank may not cross double digits in crores in the auction. This is because most teams have their openers sorted."

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Aakash Chopra predicts teams that could target Mayank Agarwal

Aakash Chopra believes the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and the Gujarat Titans (GT) are probably the only two teams that need a quality opener like Mayank Agarwal and will probably engage in a bidding war.

He feels SRH will bag Agarwal's services because of their superior remaining purse (INR 42.25 crore). On this, Chopra stated:

"Sunrisers and Gujarat should logically engage in a bidding war for Mayank. Logically, Sunrisers should win it, given their purse. But anything can happen in the auction."

SRH retained players: Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kartik Tyagi, T. Natarajan, Umran Malik, Aiden Markram, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Glenn Phillips, Marco Jansen.

GT retained players: Hardik Pandya (c), Wriddhiman Saha, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, B. Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Pradeep Sangwan, R. Sai Kishore, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph, David Miller, Matthew Wade, Noor Ahmad, Rashid Khan.