The Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore were involved in the first official trade of players with MI trading in left-arm Australian pacer Jason Behrendorff from RCB ahead of the IPL 2023 mini-auction.
RCB bought Behrendorff for INR 75 lakh in the last mega-auction but the speedster was benched throughout the tournament as Josh Hazlewood played all the matches. Behrendorff was with MI in 2018 and 2019, when he picked 5 wickets in 5 matches.
The auction is set to take place on December 23 in Kochi.
Here are 3 left-arm pacers which RCB may target in the IPL 2023 mini-auction:
Sam Curran
After missing the IPL 2022, Sam Curran is likely to return to the IPL and enter himself in the auction. In 32 IPL games between 2019 and 2021 for Punjab and Chennai, Sam picked up 32 wickets – including a hat-trick – and with the bat, in the IPL he averages 22 at a strike rate of 149 with a couple of fifties.
Should Curran enter the IPL 2023 auction, he will certainly cause a fierce bidding war because of his skillset of being a left-arm seam-bowling all-rounder! Further, his value has been accentuated recently after his emergence as a death-overs bowler for England during the T20 World Cup 2022. Before the final, 7 of his 10 wickets in the tournament came in the powerplay.
Expect Sam Curran to fetch at least 12 crores in the auction, and RCB might go after the 24-year-old England all-rounder.
Josh Little
While Josh Little has been around the circuit for a while – he’s played 53 T20Is and 83 T20 matches – it was during the T20 World Cup 2022 that the Ireland pacer made a big splash.
Playing a big part in Ireland’s success, the 22-year-old left-arm Irish seamer snapped 11 wickets in 7 matches at an economy of 7 in the tournament in Australia, including that of Jos Buttler. Little can swing the ball considerably and also has decent pace.
Reece Topley
Left-arm England pacer Reece Topley unfortunately was ruled out on the eve of the T20 World Cup 2022 due to injury. But Topley has taken significant strides in white-ball cricket this year and was even considered by many a certain starter in England’s XI. In 16 T20Is in 2022, Topley has taken 17 wickets at a good economy of 7.8.
Topley brings in a number of factors as a seamer – left-arm angle, ability to swing the ball both ways, can generate extra bounce with his height and is also capable of nailing his yorkers, plus Topley also has slower ball variations up his sleeve. All this makes him a good option to have on the bench for RCB if Hazlewood is injured or unavailable.
