Glenn Maxwell, Kyle Jamieson the talk of the town, as RCB go big on overseas buys

RCB had the second biggest purse going into the 2021 IPL auction, and boy wasn’t every bit of it needed! Having splashed the cash on two of the three biggest buys of the day, the RCB management has reposed faith in the overseas big names. 

All the talk was about Glenn Maxwell heading into the auction, and the RCB think tank started the bidding for the Aussie all-rounder at 3 crores. The price of a player often becomes a point of debate at the end of the auction, but it takes two hands (at least) to clap, and it was CSK who went all the way for the Australian big-hitter. RCB’s final bid of 14.25 crores ensured they had staved off the competition to land Maxwell.

It was quite evident that RCB would look at splashing big on an overseas bowler. Jhye Richardson was clearly a target who ended up at Punjab Kings after RCB decided to bow out of the race at 14 crores. One wouldn’t have been wrong to think that Maxwell would be RCB’s biggest buy of the day. And then came Kyle Jamieson. The Kiwi fast bowler’s bank account would go on to see a massive swelling. Beginning at a modest 75 lakhs, a bidding war between RCB and the only team to have had a bigger purse than RCB going into the auction. If Punjab beat RCB to the pole to Jhye Richardson, The Challengers pipped the Punjab Kings to Jamieson. At a whopping 15 Crores, Jamieson became a Royal Challenger.

With just one final overseas slot left, RCB were after an all-rounder. While the pursuit for Moises Henriques ended in futility, his fellow Aussie and recent BBL champion Dan Christian was the perfect like-for-like option whose purchase made RCB’s purse 4.8 crores lighter. 

Having released a plethora of middle-order Indian players, the RCB management opted to adopt an interesting strategy of bidding low for Indian players. All of Sachin Baby, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Rajat Patidar,  Suyash Prabhudessai, and K.S. Bharat, the five Indian purchases being at a base price of 20 lakhs, the approach was pretty evident.

Having landed two massive buys, the squad dons a complete look. The squad has a lean outlook with only 22 of the available slots filled up. With 4 batsmen, 4 wicket-keepers, 7 all-rounders, and 7 bowlers, Captain Kohli will have plenty of options to choose from this season.