Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) signed eight players on first day of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auctions. Out of their eight picks, only one player was picked at his base price.
Players signed at mega auction
RCB opened their account by roping in former South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis for Rs 7 crore. Staying true to their nature, the Bangalore-based franchise spent huge amount of money for highest wicket-taker of the last season, Harshal Patel and Sri Lankan all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga. Patel, who was the Purple Cap winner of IPL 2021 was brought back by RCB for Rs 10.75 crore whereas Hasaranga, was signed by RCB for a huge amount of Rs 10.75 crore.
Their third big overseas pick of the auction was Josh Hazlewood for Rs 7.75 crore. They brought back uncapped all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed as well. The fan-favourite franchise also picked Dinesh Karthik as their designated wicketkeeper-batter as they decided against going after Srikar Bharat. Their last pick of the first day was Akash Deep for the base price of Rs 20 lakh.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
Faf du Plessis – Rs 7 Crore
Harshal Patel – Rs 10.75 Crore
Wanindu Hasaranga – Rs 10.75 Crore
Dinesh Karthik -Rs 5.50 Crore
Josh Hazlewood – Rs 7.75 Crore
Shahbaz Ahmed Rs 2.4 Crore
Anuj Rawat – Rs 3.4 Crore
Akashdeep – Rs 20 Lakh
Mahipal Lomror- Rs 95 lakh
Finn Allen- Rs 80 lakh
Sherfane Rutherford- Rs 1 crore
Jason Behrendorff- Rs 75 lakh
Suyash Prabhudessai- Rs 30 lakh
Chama Milind- Rs 25 lakh
David Willey- Rs 2 crore
Aneeshwar Gautam- Rs 20 lakh
Karn Sharma- Rs 50 lakh
Siddharth Kaul- Rs 75 lakh
Luvnith Sisodia- Rs 20 lakh
Retained players
Virat Kohli
GlennMaxwell
Mohammed Siraj
Retained players
Apart from the obvious retention of skipper Virat Kohli, the side have held on to Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and Indian pacer Mohammad Siraj, leaving them with a hefty amount of Rs 57 crore in their purse. However, AB de Villiers announced his retirement from all forms of cricket thus the South Afrcian will not be a part of IPL 2022.
Meanwhile, three big names who were released by the Bangalore-based IPL franchise were Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Harshal Patel, who have always rose to the occasion whenever the team needed.
Kohli, who announced his decision to step down as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore last year, has not been at his best with the bat in recent seasons, so the outfit from Bengaluru will hope to add some major firepower to complement him as well as Aussie star Maxwell, who found his best form with RCB.
Kohli, who is among those few players who represented just one franchise since IPL started, has played a total of 207 matches for RCB so far, in which he has mustered 6,283 runs with an impressive five centuries at an average of 37.39. In 2022, he will look to replicate the same for his side. On the other hand, out of 97 matches Maxwell has played so far in IPL, he has scored 2018 runs including 22 wickets while the aggressive Siraj has snared 50 wickets in 50 matches. The 'Terrific Three' is all set to put up a show to end RCB's title quest this season.
