Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) pacer Harshal Patel revealed the conversation he had with the franchise management when they named their player retentions for the IPL 2022 auction.
Harshal Patel stole the limelight in IPL 2021. The right-arm pacer took 32 wickets for Royal Challengers Banglore in the season and was the owner of the purple cap. The franchise then surprised many when they didn’t retain him for the upcoming IPL 2022.
However, in the ongoing IPL 2022 auction, RCB went for Harshal Patel from the word go and invited a bidding war with SRH. But in the end, the Bengaluru-based franchise shelled out a whopping amount of INR 10.75 crores for the pacer to bring him back into the team.
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Speaking on Byju's Cricket Live ahead of Day 2 auction, Harshal Patel said that when Royal Challengers Bangalore traded him from Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2021 they gave him responsibility and backed him.
He admitted that the franchise bought him for a huge price tag in the mega auction but the amount of faith they showed in him means a lot to him.
"When they traded me back from Delhi, they gave me an opportunity and responsibility that I was not expecting to fulfill. They backed me, saw something in me and that means a lot. The price tag is obviously huge but at the same time, the amount of faith they've shown in me means a lot," Harshal Patel said.
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Harshal Patel revealed that the RCB management had explained the retention dynamics to him wherein he would have got 6 crores for being their fourth retention while RCB would have been hit with a pay cut of 9 crores. He said the management wanted him to earn that money by sitting in the auction.
"They basically told me that if we retain you, we'll have to pay you 6 crore and 9 crores will be deducted out of our purse because you will be the fourth player. So we don't want to do that and we'd rather that you earn that money in the auction and we'll try our best to get you back. So that was the only communication," he said.
Apart from Harshal Patel, RCB roped in Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga for INR 10.75 crores along with Faf du Plessis for INR 7 crores.
They also bought Dinesh Karthik, Josh Hazlewood, Anuj Rawat, Shahbaz Ahmed, and Akash Deep. They have spent a total of INR 47.75 Crores so far and are left with a purse of ₹9.25 crores.
(Star Sports inputs)
