RCB director of operations Mike Hesson has revealed that Virat Kohli and the team management were extremely keen on getting Dale Steyn back in the auction.

Former New Zealand head coach Mike Hesson has revealed that the RCB team management and captain Virat Kohli were on the same page about buying South African pacer Dale Steyn back in the squad. Steyn, who has the seventh-best economy rate of 6.7 in IPL history, had made a comeback to the Bangalore-based side after playing for different franchises after the first three seasons.

However, he had to travel back home after he injured his shoulder after just two games. He made a huge impact in those two games as well and that explains why RCB wanted Steyn so badly.

Mike Hesson said, “We knew we wanted Steyn but we knew if we put a bid on him early, it might have gone up to three or four crores, which would have had flow-on effects. It was the same with Isuru Udana as well. We thought Udana was going to be well sought after, so we had to slow-play that one a little bit. In the end, it worked out the way we wanted but it did require a sense of patience, which is not one of my main attributes.”

Hesson also shared that he had a long conversation with Kohli and they decided to get the South African pacer on board.

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He said, “I probably exchanged a couple of hundred messages with Virat [Kohli, the RCB captain] for a couple of hours. I think he thought we went to sleep in the middle for a couple of hours as well, but he was well aware of what our planning was. He was keen at the end, as we were, to get Udana and Steyn.”

RCB bagged Steyn for his base price of INR 2 crore in the final round of the auction.

(Inputs from India Today)