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Bengaluru, February 14: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) head coach Sanjay Bangar on Monday (February 14) said the inclusion of former South African batter Faf du Plessis has added "real strength" to the batting department.
RCB acquired Harshal Patel (Rs 10.75 crore), Wanindu Hasaranga (Rs 10.75 crore), Josh Hazlewood (Rs 7.75 crore), Faf (Rs 7 crore), and these all are the top buys among the 19 players bought by the team at the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction 2022.
"We are quite satisfied with our haul at the auctions to form a balanced team. Our plan was to bring stability and at the same time, have variations owing to the changing situations in a T20 tournament," said Bangar in an RCB release.
"We aimed to have a solid role for each player that we pick along with some back-ups in the same form. We have achieved a well-rounded pool of talents from international and domestic cricket.
"The addition of Faf du Plessis adds real strength to the batting department. He is a proven performer, a seasoned campaigner and has delivered at the highest levels.
“We were looking at someone who can solidify our top order and his inclusion into the team solves just that, with diverse experience of playing across formats gives us options, not only in terms of opening the batting line but also with leadership skills," Bangar explained.
The RCB head coach also explained how the team's bowling department has faired following the conclusion of the IPL 2022 mega auction.
"Josh Hazelwood brings a great arch to the bowling department. He has been in the circuit for quite some time, showing us every time what he does the best and brings a wealth of experience in the T20 format," said Bangar.
"Wanindu Hasaranga is a wrist spinning all-rounder who can bat at 7, and we were looking closely at picking a quality leggie in the spin department. The fact that he can contribute with the bat as well is a great value add.
“We required a good No. 6 and a finisher, who we have found in Dinesh Karthik. Harshal Patel did exceptionally well in the last season and was a natural choice for us to go that mile on the bid.
"We are very happy to have him and some of our players return to the RCB family and we couldn't be happy to reinvest in players who we have seen develop over the years.
“We are now eagerly awaiting the start of our preparations with these talents and get onto the real execution on the field for an exciting season ahead," he added.
Speaking about the strategy at the auction, Mike Hesson, Director of Cricket Operations, RCB said, "We are very happy with the way our squad is shaped with the new inclusions around the retained talents. It is a really balanced team of overseas and domestic players. We have managed to cover all our bases with multi-dimensional skill sets and that was the key to our strategy getting into the auctions.
“The majority of things went as per plan considering the auction dynamics, we managed to check off all the criteria that we had set out to achieve for the RCB team.”
"The strategy was to define dedicated roles for players, who we identified, and to strategically go after individual players, managing the purse wisely. We also successfully managed to get some of our RCB players back which was always an important part of our game plan.
“It is certainly an achievement with the way auction dynamics plays out and the budget remains to be a constraint, but we are very happy with the outcome.
“We also looked at the availability and how fast all these players just get into the groove and the preparations to form a playing XI. We are certainly excited for the upcoming season and believe we have got the arsenal to put up a quality show," he added.
Speaking about the mega auction, Prathmesh Mishra, Chairman, RCB said, "We are very pleased with the squad that we have assembled over the two days at the Tata IPL Mega Auction 2022.
“We have got some seasoned players who we have witnessed giving eclectic performances in the recent cricket tournaments and talented youngsters who have shown tremendous potential with their consistent efforts in their rising cricket career.
“We were very clinical in our plans and have ensured players who have a fearless attitude and embody our philosophy of Play Bold to get on this journey with us and enjoy their stint at RCB playing their style of cricket.
“We look forward to an exciting season of cricket entertainment with these exceptional bunch of players."
RCB squad: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, David Willey, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sherfane Rutherford, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Siddharth Kaul, Jason Behrendorff, Karn Sharma, Suyash Prabhudesai, Chama Miling, Akash Deep, Aneeshwar Gautam, Luvnith Sisodia.
