Karnataka's batter Devdutt Padikkal
Credit: PTI Photo
Bengaluru: It’s too soon to say if Royal Challengers Bengaluru have been miserly out of prudence or out of some misplaced strategy. Either way, they are now left with a squad which looks like it will need a lot going its way to go anywhere.
In an effort to distract the critics, RCB shot out a press statement an hour or so before the end of the auction, with a note from the director of cricket Mo Bobat, saying: “Let’s be honest - RCB has never won the IPL. In the past, we’ve focused on spending big on a small number of players. This year, we approached it differently, aiming to assemble a balanced team rather than disproportionately spending on top-order batters as we may have done before.”
The honesty is refreshing but at the cost of finding balance, RCB may have gone the other way because they have invested significantly in their pace battery. Besides having spent Rs 12.5 crore on Josh Hazlewood, they also spent Rs 10.75 crore on a 34-year-old Bhuvneshwar Kumar to complement Yash Dayal, who was retained.
They also managed to rope in Phil Salt for Rs 11.5 crore, a young Jacob Bethell at Rs 2.6 crore, and Krunal Pandya for a seemingly economical Rs 5.75 crore. However, all of this means the team has a solid middle-order irrespective of the rotation, but they do not have enough weight at the top despite picking up local boy Devdutt Padikkal at his base price of Rs 2 crore during the accelerated process.
Andy Flower, the coach, didn’t seem too concerned about this though, spending more time discussing the positives instead. “It was really great to get Bhuvi today, that level of skill, along with Krunal's level of skill, will complement Hazlewood coming back to RCB,” he said. “This skill we have in the bowling department is what you need at Chinnaswamy. So, to have that level of skill, secured is a good feeling for us. Well, we got a lot of our first options, actually. So, we're really happy with where we stand at the moment”
While combinations are a thing worth thinking about, there isn’t concrete evidence as to who RCB is going to name as skipper. Frankly, there aren’t too many names that stand out, save for maybe Rajat Patidar.
“We haven’t made any decisions on the captaincy. We will give it a thought after the auction and we know what our squad looks like," Babat said, before adding that Kohli has been playing an ‘active role’ in picking the players.