Rajat Patidar with Virat Kohli.
Credit: PTI Photo
Bengaluru: Virat Kohli has never hidden his deep love for Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The ageing superstar of Indian cricket has on many occasions called the club and the Chinnaswamy Stadium his second home. He’s even categorically stated he can’t envision donning the jersey of another IPL franchise.
So it was not at all surprising to see RCB retain their biggest box office attraction for a whopping Rs 21 crore, the most expensive amongst retained Indian players and joint second most overall (Nicholas Pooran, Lucknow Super Giants) behind Heinrich Klaasen (Rs 23 crore, Sunrisers Hyderabad).
With an eye on the future, the Royal Challengers, who are yet to win an IPL title despite coming close on three occasions where they finished runners-up (2009, 2011, and 2016), retained talented Madhya Pradesh batter Rajat Patidar for Rs 11 crore.
What was surprising though was RCB opting to keep the services of uncapped left-arm pacer Yash Dayal (Rs 5 crore) ahead of the more accomplished and one of India’s all-format bowlers Mohammed Siraj.
Along with Siraj, the 26-year-old Dayal was one of the standout bowlers for RCB last season, bagging 15 wickets in 14 games. Although he was expensive for the season (9.14), he drew widespread praise for bowling a superb final over in their final league game that propelled RCB into the play-offs.
Then defending champions Chennai Super Kings needed 17 runs from 6 balls to seal a play-off ticket and it looked like the five-time winners were headed in that direction when the talismanic MS Dhoni smashed Dayal for a mighty six.
With 11 needed from 5 and Dhoni in a mood, even the most accomplished of bowlers may have buckled but Dayal showed nerves of steel as he not only dismissed Dhoni off the very next ball but gave away just 1 run in the remaining five balls to seal a famous win for the Challengers. That performance certainly seems to have played a big part in RCB’s decision to retain the UP pacer.
“We are thrilled to retain Yash Dayal, an extraordinary talent whose career is on an upward trajectory. His unique ability as a left-arm bowler, capable of swinging the ball in both directions, adds a valuable dimension to our bowling attack -- one that is increasingly rare in the auction landscape,” said head coach Andy Flower in a media statement.
Having spent Rs 37 crore, RCB will have a purse of Rs 83 crore at the mega auctions. They will also have three Right to Match cards (one uncapped player and two capped players, or three capped players) and the possible candidates are Aussie big-hitter Glenn Maxwell and Siraj.
A left-field choice could even be Vyshak Vijaykumar. The Karnataka pacer recently got a call-up for the South Africa T20I series and the solid performance there, if he gets a chance, could burnish his credentials.