Royal Challengers Bangalore’s participation in the 2024 IPL Auction has once again left supporters with conflicting feelings. After releasing numerous players before to the big day, RCB had a lot of eyes on them.
They paid a lot of money to bring in Australian all-rounder Cameron Green, and they also traded Shahbaz Ahmed for Mayank Dagar during the transfer window. They needed the auction to fill the last gaps in their roster, which some supporters believe were not filled correctly on December 19.
While some of their selections are sound investments, others have questioned the rationale behind the move. On that topic, let’s look at three areas where RCB fell short in the auction:
3. Lower middle-order power
With Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, and the outstanding Rajat Patidar, RCB has one of the league’s strongest top-four lineups. The issue, as it was last year and has been for numerous seasons, is the bottom middle order.
Coach Andy Flower has been quite clear about how they see Cameron Green as the answer to that problem in the lower middle order. However, Green struggled for Mumbai Indians (MI) in most innings where he had to bat lower in the order during the IPL 2023 season.
If the youthful all-rounder fails to deliver, RCB will be in danger because they presently lack a recognized player (local or international) at that position. They might have tried going for someone in the auction like Daryl Mitchell, who has mastered that job to perfection in white-ball cricket.
2. Indian wicketkeeper
Dinesh Karthik, the experienced wicketkeeper who was finally replaced behind the wickets by Anuj Rawat, had a pretty dismal season in IPL 2023. Even the teenager from Delhi, however, bats higher in domestic cricket and has had to adjust to the finishing role with the bat.
The Royal Challengers should have prioritized an Indian wicketkeeper heading into the auction, but they looked satisfied to stick with the two choices that didn’t work well last year.
3. RCB’s Bowling Unit Fails to Match IPL 2023 Standards
RCB wanted to update their bowling assault, thus they let go of Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Josh Hazlewood. At the auction, they went big for Alzarri Joseph and Yash Dayal, paying a combined cost of 16.5 crore.
However, given that Reece Topley was outstanding in his little playing time for them and that the batting order is already stacked with international players, Joseph might end up being a bench option. Dayal’s confidence hit an all-time low in IPL 2023 following Rinku Singh’s destruction (five sixes in five deliveries in the last over to secure the game), and it remains to be seen how he recovers.
It seemed odd that the Bengaluru-based franchise went big for foreign pacers but not so much for Indian possibilities like Kartik Tyagi or Shivam Mavi. They are still highly reliant on players like Karn Sharma and Mohammed Siraj to hit form, which may be tough on a high-scoring environment like the Chinnaswamy Stadium.