Former batsman and RCB legend AB de Villiers isn’t too pleased with his franchise’s management’s performance and buys at the recently concluded IPL 2024 auction. AB de Villiers reckons RCB needed to get an experienced wrist-spinner as the replacement for Wanindu Hasaranga.
It was already a big surprise that RCB released Wanindu Hasaranga, a former number 1 ranked ICC T20I bowler. They didn’t get any experienced wrist-spinner in the auction, and now their spin attack will be led by Karn Sharma and Glenn Maxwell, which could give them nightmarish games at the Chinnaswamy stadium.
While RCB replaced Josh Hazlewood with Alzarri Joseph and Lockie Ferguson, along with Yash Dayal and Tom Curran, they failed to bolster their spin department at the mini-auction.
We missed Chahal over the last few years: AB de Villiers
On his YouTube channel, AB de Villiers said that leg-spinners like Rashid Khan and Kuldeep Yadav are the X-factor in T20 teams, and that will be a missing link in RCB’s team this season.
The South African pointed out that Chahal, RCB’s all-time leading wicket-taker, has been missed, especially last season when RCB failed to reach the playoffs.
“One or two incredible spinners; X-factor spinners. I think of guys like Kuldeep Yadav. We need an X-factor spinner like Rashid Khan perhaps,” AB de Villiers said. “We got rid of Yuzi Chahal not long ago. We missed him over the last few years, and I think that’s still the missing link. They also let go Hasaranga. I don’t know what the plans are there.”
“The spin department, I don’t think is strong enough. They could have done a little bit better.”But, I think they added to the seam bowling, which has been the area that has let us down at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in the past. I do think Alzarri Joseph justifies that decision.”
Chahal was not retained by RCB ahead of the IPL 2022 mega-auction and was bought by Rajasthan.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) players bought in IPL 2024 auction: Alzarri Joseph (INR 11.5 crore), Yash Dayal (INR 5 crore), Lockie Ferguson (INR 2 crore), Tom Curran (INR 1.5 crore), Swapnil Singh (INR 20 lakh), Saurav Chauhan (INR 20 lakh)
RCB Players retained: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Cameron Green (traded), Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudesai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar (traded), Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Vijaykumar Vyshak,
