Former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh believes that young wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan will be a top priority for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the upcoming IPL 2022 mega auction.

Kishan gives the management more flexibility when it comes to putting together a team around him. The southpaw has a strike rate of over 130 in all phases and, with the exception of off-spin, has a good record against all bowling types.

Ishan Kishan was not retained by Mumbai Indians ahead of the IPL mega auction, instead, the five-time champions opted to keep Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Kieron Pollard, and Suryakumar Yadav.

Bengaluru will host the IPL mega auction on February 12 and 13. Kishan's base price is Rs 2 crore, but he is not a member of the marquee set.

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"Ishan Kishan is someone I am a fan of. On his own capability, on any given day, he can smash 70-80 runs off 30 balls and win the match for his team. He will become a very big player in the time to come. If a player like him goes to any team, he should be given the responsibility of leadership. The way he gets older, with responsibilities, he will become even bigger. He already captains Jharkhand. RCB would definitely target Ishan Kishan in the auction. It will be tough because many teams would go after him at the auction," Harbhajan said in a video on his YouTube channel.

Kishan's ability to hit the ball from the first ball puts him among a rare group of players, according to Dinesh Karthik.

"He is got tremendous skills... He can attack from ball one. That's a skill every player doesn't possess. In the new age, players try to attack a lot from ball one. Teams that have succeeded in doing that consistently have done very well in multi-nation tournaments. So, Ishan definitely has a good chance to come into the scheme of things," Karthik was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.