Alzarri Joseph had one of the best days in his life on Tuesday as he bagged a massive contract from the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL 2024 auction.
The West Indies fast bowler who played for the Gujarat Titans in the last two seasons, and was with Mumbai Indians in 2019, was bought by RCB for a whopping INR 11.5 crore.
RCB had gone really hard at Pat Cummins, making a bid of INR 20.25 crore before pulling out at SRH’s bid of INR 20.5 crore. After failing to acquite Cummins, RCB remained determined to get Alzarri Joseph.
He has picked 20 wickets in 19 IPL matches for MI and GT at an average of 28 and an economy of 9.3, very ordinary numbers. But he holds the record of the best bowling figures in IPL history – 6/12 in the 2019 IPL vs SRH.
While Alzarri Joseph was over the moon by bagging such a hefty sum, the RCB fans were stunned and “disappointed” at the buying the West Indies seamer.
One RCB fan, with the Twitter handle @imkevin149, even opined that this acquisition for such a high price was the “worst buy in the history of IPL by RCB”.
This fan tweeted: “Alzarri Joseph to RCB for 11.5cr This is the worst buy in the history of IPL by RCB
Now our auction is almost over So disappointed @RCBTweets”
Faf du Plessis and Alzarri Joseph have a really good relationship: Mo Bobat
RCB Director of Cricket Mo Bobat explained their move of buying Joseph. Apart from his hit the deck style of bowling and his high pace, Bobat revealed that RCB skipper Faf du Plessis and Joseph have a good relationship as they played together in the Joburg Super Kings team in SA20 earlier this year.
“He was our top three targets. We made a good judgment call,” Mo Bobat said. “Alzarri bowls at high pace, he’s got a high release point, so he gets bounce. We know bounce is important at the Chinnaswamy (Stadium). He’s also got fantastic death skills. You look at his record and he’s stacks up against anyone at the death.
“He’s also someone that’s playing regular international cricket all around the world and franchise all around the world. So he’s someone that can adapt to conditions and surfaces. And he’s someone also that the captain knows really well. So (skipper) Faf (du Plessis) and him have a really good relationship and they’ve got a real trusted dynamic between them,” he added.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) players bought in IPL 2024 auction: Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan
RCB Players retained: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Cameron Green (traded), Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik (wk), 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,
