Watch: Murali Karthik takes a jibe at Punjab franchise, leaves Chris Gayle in Splits

The Indian T20 League mini-auction is almost here as the fans and franchises are eagerly waiting for the mega event to get underway. A total of 405 players will go under the hammer as the ten franchises look to fill the 87 vacant spots in the mini-auction scheduled to be held in Kochi on Friday. Ahead of the auction, there are many discussions going around on the players the respective franchises need to target.

The players from Australia, England, West Indies and South Africa are confirmed to be playing for the entire Indian T20 league 2023 and can get a good amount of tractions on Friday. The Hyderabad franchise possesses the most purse amount, followed by the Punjab franchise. Punjab have a purse amount of 32.20 crores, with the availability of nine players.

They released nine players, with the most prominent being their Indian T20 League 2022 captain Mayank Agarwal. Under Mayank’s leadership, the team could not reach the playoffs, and he could score only 196 runs in 13 innings.

In this regard, former spinner Anil Kumble reckoned that he was surprised by the release of Mayank, as he was the leader, and was picked up as the player who would take forward the team in the coming years.  He also added that the 31-year-old decided to change his batting position to No.4 as well for the team’s sake.

“Yes, I am certainly surprised because he was someone who was retained with the intention to be the captain and looked at for the future and I am really surprised that they have let him go. He is a fantastic player, he sacrificed his position in the team and I don’t see too many players do that he sort of said okay, I don’t mind coming down the order for the sake of the team,” said Kumble.

Watch the video here:

"Was surprised that Punjab let him (@mayankcricket) go" – Kumble.

▶️ Enter @MuraliKartik with a 🔥 reaction to that!

Tomorrow promises to be terrific, with these two & other legends 👉🏻 1 pm onwards, LIVE on #JioCinema 📲#TATAIPLAuctionOnJioCinema | @IPL @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/8fbJ0RdU8p

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) December 22, 2022

After Kumble’s remark, former cricketer-turned-commentator Murali Kartik took a jibe at Punjab’s team management for not supporting their players in rough times. He pointed fingers at Chris Gayle, who was also released by the franchise. The Universe Boss represented Punjab from 2018 to 2021. He was then released ahead of the 2022 edition.

“With Punjab, it’s interesting because there are quite a few people from Punjab who have been bitten by Punjab,” Kartik said while pointing his finger towards Chris Gayle.