Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) all-rounder Glenn Maxwell revealed that the captain Virat Kohli had discussions with him regarding potentially signing the all-rounder for the ongoing IPL 2021 in December 2020 when India toured Australia for the limited-overs and Test series.
The swashbuckling cricketer further revealed that Kohli had told him that it would be great to have him in the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) squad for the IPL 2021, but highlighted that things might not go according to the plan at the auction held in February.
Notably, RCB and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) were involved in a bidding war for Maxwell at the auction, but he was eventually sold to Bengaluru for Rs 14.25 crore, more than 7 times his base price.
Maxwell said in a video shared by RCB on Twitter: “We had been texting a fair bit. We obviously caught up. We chatted after the ODI and T20I series in Australia. He talked to me about potentially playing for RCB. If I got the opportunity, he said 'we would love to have you. But obviously, there was an auction.”
The all-rounder further added, “He said it would be wonderful to have you. He floated the idea back even then. There was a long process in work. Thankfully, I am playing for RCB now.”
Recently, Maxwell also revealed a funny incident when his Aussie teammate Adam Zampa had given him the RCB cap even before the IPL 2021 auction and even sent a photo of them to Kohli along with a short message for him. Hours after the cap presentation, RCB snapped up Maxwell at the auction.
Read Also: IPL 2021: Harshal Patel says, "Clarity about my role given by RCB benefitted me"
The 32-year-old said that it would have looked a bit silly had RCB not been able to acquire him at the auction, but he is happy that things have turned out in their favor.
Maxwell further recalled, “The day of the auction, it was at night time in New Zealand. We were training while in quarantine in New Zealand. Adam Zampa had his RCB hat in his bag, so he took it out and made sure we had a photo. He sent it to Virat and said 'Let's get it over the line. Congratulations I have already given him his first cap!”
He signed off by saying, “That was before the auction, so it all happened pretty well. It would have looked pretty silly if it didn't work out that way. He put the picture on afterward but we took the photo before the auction. Virat said you guys are idiots but in a lovely way.”
(With IANS Inputs)
