Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) secured the services of 19 players at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction and some of the top buys were India seamer Harshal Patel (Rs 10.75 Crore), Sri Lanka spinner Wanindu Hasaranga (Rs 10.75 Crore), Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood (Rs 7.75 Crore), and veteran South Africa batter Faf du Plessis (Rs 7 Crore).
The Bangalore-based franchise also bolstered their squad by signing experienced wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik (Rs 5.5 crore), wicketkeeper-batter Anuj Rawat (Rs 3.4 crore), left-arm orthodox bowler & left-hand batter Shahbaz Ahamad (Rs 2.4 crore), West Indies all-rounder Sherfane Rutherford (Rs 1 crore).
See Also: “Worth the wait”, Zaheer Khan eager to watch Jofra and Bumrah bowling in tandem
Speaking about the strategy at the auction, Mike Hesson, RCB’s Director of Cricket Operations, said: "We are very happy with the way our squad is shaped with the new inclusions around the retained talents. It is a really balanced team of overseas and domestic players. We have managed to cover all our bases with multi-dimensional skill sets and that was the key to our strategy getting into the auctions. The majority of things went as per plan considering the auction dynamics, we managed to check off all the criteria that we had set out to achieve for the RCB team."
"The strategy was to define dedicated roles for players, who we identified, and to strategically go after individual players, managing the purse wisely. We also successfully managed to get some of our RCB players back which was always an important part of our game plan. It is certainly an achievement with the way auction dynamics plays out and the budget remains to be a constraint, but we are very happy with the outcome. We also looked at the availability and how fast all these players just get into the groove and the preparations to form a playing XI. We are certainly excited for the upcoming season and believe we have got the arsenal to put up a quality show," he added.
Commenting on the mega auction, RCB’s Chairman Prathmesh Mishra, said, "We are very pleased with the squad that we have assembled over the two days at the Tata IPL Mega Auction 2022. We have got some seasoned players who we have witnessed giving eclectic performances in the recent cricket tournaments and talented youngsters who have shown tremendous potential with their consistent efforts in their rising cricket career. We were very clinical in our plans and have ensured players who have a fearless attitude and embody our philosophy of Play Bold to get on this journey with us and enjoy their stint at RCB playing their style of cricket. We look forward to an exciting season of cricket entertainment with these exceptional bunch of players."
RCB Squad:
Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, David Willey, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sherfane Rutherford, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Siddharth Kaul, Jason Behrendorff, Karn Sharma, Suyash Prabhudesai, Chama Miling, Akash Deep, Aneeshwar Gautam, Luvnith Sisodia.
(With ANI inputs)
