Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) owner Manoj Badale has expressed disappointment over losing out on England pacer Jofra Archer in the IPL 2022 mega auction.
Due to an elbow injury and subsequent surgeries, Archer hasn't played in competitive cricket in the last ten months. It was previously informed to the franchises that Archer will not play in the IPL 2022 and will only be available from IPL 2023 onwards. Also, the franchise buying him will not get a replacement player.
Despite this, the speedster put his name in the IPL 2022 auction and found a buyer in the Mumbai Indians (MI).
However, RR tried hard to reclaim Archer at the auction, but after a heated bidding war, MI was able to steal Archer for Rs. 8 crores, keeping long-term planning in mind.
Badale said in a media release: “It's obviously disappointing to lose out on a player like Jofra. He's been an integral part of our team for the past few years and grew in stature with us. But if we had gone on to retain him at Rs 9 crore, we wouldn't have been able to build the squad we have now.”
He continued, “However, he was always on our list even though we knew he was injured for this year. We pushed as hard as we could and went all the way for him, but unfortunately lost out to a team with a larger purse. We wish Jofra the very best in his recovery and for the future.”
The RR owner also revealed that the franchise’s main focus was to build a strong core of Indian players at the auction.
He explained, “Our priority this year was to build a strong Indian core, which we have done with the likes of R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Karun, Saini, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh along with Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal already retained.
Our focus was always on having a world-class XI, which is visible in the way we have gone about our business as we tried to utilize the majority of our funds on the starting XI. We've tried our best to also go for familiar faces, who we are excited to have at the Royals again. In terms of the international players, we've secured some amazing buys and I'm looking forward to seeing them in pink.”
Badale was delighted to be able to get the services of Indian speedster Navdeep Saini and a few experienced players like Jimmy Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, and Daryl Mitchell at the auction for the upcoming IPL 2022.
The owner further said, “In terms of having a solid base, we are absolutely happy with the purchase of Navdeep Saini. He's an experienced player and has been regularly plying his trade with the Indian team as well, so he compliments the other experienced bowlers.”
He signed off by saying, “I think it was a key phase for us, towards the end, to secure their signings. Jimmy and Nathan are particularly experienced when it comes to the IPL, and we feel they will add a lot of value to our side. Rassie and Daryl, as we've seen, can be extremely effective and are really exciting cricketers. So we're really happy to have them all in our team.”
(With IANS/PTI Inputs)
