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Mo Babat, director of cricket, and Andy Flower, head coach of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, provided insight into the previous finalists' choice to let go of fast bowler Mohammed Siraj prior to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction. Many were taken aback when RCB decided not to keep Siraj, who they had supported since his first season with them in 2018. Only three players were kept by RCB: Yash Dayal for Rs 5 crore, Rajat Patidar for Rs 11 crore, and Virat Kohli for Rs 21 crore. By keeping Yash for the upcoming season instead of Siraj, RCB contributed to some eyebrow-raising.
Andy Flower told the team that RCB wanted to keep a left-arm pacer, which benefited Yash Dayal, following the announcement of the retentions on October 31.
"I'm sure one of the surprises around our retentions will be the fact that we haven't retained Mohamed Siraj. Mohamed Siraj is a successful international cricketer of some standing and has also been with RCB for the last eight years," Andy Flower said.
"We want to look for some particular skills in the fast bowling department. We've already identified and retained one of those particular skills that we want, which is the left arm angle and T20 skills that Yash Dayal brings us," he added.
Siraj was a vital member of the RCB team, particularly in the past few years as the Hyderabad pacer became one of India's all-format bowlers. In 87 IPL games, Siraj claimed 83 wickets for RCB. Before the IPL 2022 mega auction, Siraj was kept for Rs 7 crores, however, the bowler was released even though he took 15 wickets the previous season.
In order to cope with the batter-friendly characteristics of the Bengaluru stadium, Mo Babat disclosed that the RCB think tank had given the Siraj decision a lot of thought. He also mentioned that the club is concentrating on diversifying their bowling attack.
"Probably the discussion that took up the most time for us actually was our decision to whether we retain or release Mohamed Siraj. When he's got his tail up, he's got that real fire that you can see that becomes infectious for the rest of the team. He bounces quite strongly off Virat and those two as a combination have been quite powerful. It was a big decision for us to make to not retain Siraj because of all of those skills and attributes," Babat said.
Over the years, one of the IPL's most batter-friendly fields has been M Chinnaswamy Stadium. It is unclear whether RCB will utilize one of their three remaining Right to Match (RTM) cards to bid for Siraj's services.
