Yuzvendra Chahal had an excellent time in IPL with the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), for whom he played 114 matches from 2014-2021 and picked 139 wickets. The wrist-spinner still remains the highest wicket-taker for the franchise in IPL history.
Therefore, it was a huge shock when RCB released him ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction. He went under the hammer and was roped in by Rajasthan Royals for INR 6.5 Crore.
Back then, Yuzvendra Chahal had said he was hurt that the Bangalore-based franchise let him go.
"As part of the RCB franchise for eight long years, I am still unsure why I was dropped from the team. I was never informed about this decision after the IPL auction, which deeply saddened me," Chahal had said on YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia's podcast.
“No one even spoke to me. I think I played around 114 games for them. I couldn't understand what happened suddenly,” he further added.
Nearly two years later, former RCB director of cricket Mike Hesson opened up on the situation and agreed that Chahal had every right to be livid with the franchise.
Speaking to cricket.com, Hesson said that he had spoken to Chahal after the auction but was not able to explain him the auction dynamics.
“I remember ringing Yuzi afterwards and he was upset. It was very difficult to try and explain to him the auction dynamics at that time. He was visibly disinterested, and I don’t blame him. He was an RCBian and he was frustrated. But I can assure everyone that he is well-aware of the issues we were confronted with,” Hesson quoted.
Mike Hesson further stated that they couldn’t buy Chahal back as the spinner was not in the marquee players' list.
“We only retained three players because we wanted to buy back both Harshal Patel and Yuzi at the auction. By only retaining three players, it gave us an extra four crore to do that,” Hesson said.
“Probably the thing that I’m frustrated about even now is the fact that he couldn’t make the top two marquee lists despite being one of the best ever in the IPL. That was ridiculous. And the fact that he came in at No.65 in the auction list (sic) meant that it was really difficult for us to guarantee that we will get him," he added.
“But yes, we spent hours and hours at the mock auction debating how we could potentially buy Yuzi,” he concluded.
Yuzvendra Chahal has had an excellent two seasons with RR as he claimed 27 wickets in IPL 2022 and won the Purple Cap and in IPL 2023, he picked 21 scalps as well. He also went past Lasith Malinga and became the all-time highest wicket-taker in IPL history and now has 187 wickets in 145 matches.
