Virat Kohli led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) is always one of the strongest teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL). They have 3 world class batsmen in the form of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle, who can destroy any bowling attack on their day and win matches single-handedly for their team.
In the IPL auction 2017, RCB required a fast bowler and an all-rounder. Before the start of the auction, all eyes were on England’s all-rounder Ben Stokes and T20 specialist Tymal Mills. In the auction, RCB did try to get Stokes but it was Rising Pune Supergiant who win the INR 14.5 crore bid for the big all-rounder. After this, it was very important for RCB to buy a good fast bowler as Mitchell Starc’s replacement, who pulled out off the IPL just a day before the auction to “focus more on Test cricket”. So, RCB did very aggressive bidding for T20 specialist Tymal Mills and bagged the deal for whooping INR 12 crore. This made Mills the costliest fast bowler in IPL history.
Other than Mills, RCB focused more on young Indian talent. Check out the full list here:
| Player | Type | Bought for (in lakhs) | Base price (in lakhs) |
| Tymal Mills (Eng) | Left-arm seamer | INR 1200 | INR 50 |
| Aniket Choudhary (Ind) | Left-arm seamer | INR 200 | INR 10 |
| Pawan Negi (Ind) | All-rounder | INR 100 | INR 30 |
| Praveen Dubey (Ind) | Leg spinner | INR 10 | INR 10 |
| Billy Stanlake (Aus) | Right-arm seamer | INR 30 | INR 30 |
