RCB turn up, but don’t show up

Bengaluru: For hours on end, Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s representatives at the Indian Premier League auction looked a busy bunch, but in actuality, they had done little more than pick up a couple of players.

While they stuck their paddles out in haste when the likes of Rishabh Pant and others came up, they rarely wanted to stick their neck out to try and spend more. It was a strange approach given that they came into Sunday with a massive purse of Rs 83 crore to go for their pick. 

Naturally, this attitude, which isn’t entirely dissimilar to their dismal strategies in the past, drew flak from the fans online, prompting the team’s social media team to put out a post on X, saying: “All is not done, we have plenty of plans (and purse) left. Keep Calm and Trust the Planning,” the franchise captioned the post. The franchise kept the fans and supporters posted and shared another post with the caption “staying calm because we have got plans.”

Maybe the Bengaluru outfit does know something we don’t, but that doesn’t change the fact that they have posed a picture so far with only acquisitions of Josh Hazlewood (Rs 12.5 crore), Phil Salt (Rs 11.5 crore), Jitesh Sharma (Rs 11 crore), Liam Livingstone (Rs 8.75 crore).

They only made matters more ambiguous by picking up an obscure Rasikh Dar for Rs 6 crore as the auction neared the end.  

By no stretch of the imagination are these players bad, but they don’t command the kind of attention the likes of KL Rahul or Pant would. Moreover, their strategy of not using their Right To Match option on Mohammed Siraj came as a shocker. 

Siraj has been one of the most consistent performers for RCB for a few years now. Better yet, Siraj has become part of the team and the City’s culture at this point. Sure, that’s the nature of these leagues, but even on pure talent, Siraj should have remained to offer a balanced pace attack. 

Another problem that has presented itself by virtue of their passivity is that now they have to go out on a limb and start bidding more aggressively over the next 24 hours since they have only three players.  

Another miss was RCB’s absence in lifting the paddle to pick up Devdutt Padikkal. The Karnataka opener has been in good form and is often being touted as the one for the future, but surprisingly, no one went for him when he came up on the block. 

Even former RCB batter, Robin Uthappa was bemused with RCB’s decision on the Jio panel. “I’m confused. I don’t understand how you have the second-highest purse in a mega auction and have made only one pick in the first two marquee sets,” he said. 

“With fans backing you year after year, putting their emotions and hearts on the line, turning up to support the side - I’m certain they’ll feel let down. As a fan and former player of RCB, I feel like they’ve missed a trick here. I just wonder where they’re heading because they haven’t gone after Mitchell Starc, KL Rahul, or Rishabh Pant. I feel they should’ve gone for Rishabh Pant; he’s a two-skill player. With that kind of purse, they could’ve gone up to 23 crores for one of those players, but they didn’t even go that far.”

Even Mike Hesson, who was RCB’s director of cricket until a couple of years ago, said their strategy took him aback. “They pulled out of the bid for Rishabh Pant early, which was an option. If they didn’t want KL Rahul, they had to go hard for Pant. The fact that they haven’t gone for either is really surprising. I can understand not going for Shreyas Iyer because they want a two-pronged player — someone who can keep wickets and potentially captain. I thought they would go all-in for KL Rahul.”

Players bought

Josh Hazlewood (Rs 12.5 cr), Phil Salt (Rs 11.5 cr), Jitesh Sharma (Rs 11 cr), Liam Livingstone (Rs 8.75 cr), Rasikh Dar (Rs 6 cr), Suyash Sharma (Rs 2.6 cr).