Auction review: RCB

 Finally - the right combination?

For a team that has never been short of stars, RCB have been perennial under achievers of the IPL. No team in the IPL has reached more finals and failed to win in each of them than RCB. Despite the presence of Virat Kohli and the ever flamboyant ABD throughout most of the last 14 seasons they have always stuttered in key moments - none more so than then 2016 season when they had Gayle, ABD and Kohli in the form of their lives with Kohli scoring 973 runs with 4 centuries in that season. 

The biggest Achilles heal for RCB over the past has been their bowling. They've had their fare share of bowlers - Anil Kumble, Danniel Vettori, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammad Siraj, Dale Steyn are a few bowlers that have been in the team. But when it came to playing as a team, RCB tended to depend on their batsmen getting them runs than bowlers getting them wickets. And more importantly, in every season, they lacked an allrounder that could contribute both with bat and ball. And that is why by retaining Kohli(batsman), Siraj(bowler) and Glenn Maxwell(all rounder), they seemed to have hit the right choices even before stepping into the auction room. But it was odd that they decided not to retain one of Yuzvendra Chahal and Devdut Padikkal - two players who had major roles to play in their relatively successful 2020 and 2021 seasons - may be they wanted to risk it and thought they could pick them at the auction.

That decision did backfire though with both Padikkal and Chahal going elsewhere. But how did they fare at picking their team? The auction started with the surprise snatch of Faf du Plessis from CSK. Faf was picked by CSK in 2011 and was part of every up and down CSK went through over the next 10 years. CSK did put up a fight trying to wrest him but stopped when the stakes went high. RCB pounced on the opportunity to snatch an important player - they now had the openers concern sorted out. Having lost out Chahal and Padikkal, they were desperate to get some of their existing squad back. So when the other franchises put pressure for Harshal Patel and Wanindu Hasaranga, they went in all guns blazing - as a result both Patel and Hasaranga went for over 10cr - but more importantly RCB got them both. Dinesh Karthik came in next - to fill the void that ABD left - behind the wickets and in front as well.

The rest of the auction went relatively quite barring the annexure of Josh Hazlewood(interestingly from CSK again) and Shahbaz Ahmed. They did pick some good talent in the accelerated auction towards the end and managed to fill all required slots. It was definitely a case of lessons learnt from past experience as they concentrated on bringing in useful allrounders and key bowlers. In conclusion, RCB have tried to rectify mistakes of the past where they used to go for star value than skills. They seemed to have realized that a strong top order requires to be complimented by an able middle-order and an efficient bowling line-up. The picks seem to suggest that have succeeded in striking the right combination. Now all we can do is keep fingers crossed and hope they click as an unit.

Probable XI: Kohli, Du Plessis, Maxwell (C), Karthik (wk), Rutherford/Willey, Hasaranga, Shahbaz/Lomror, Harshal, Hazlewood, Karn Sharma/Kaul, Siraj