IPL auction: RCB's game-plan

Writer & editor- Naren

The Royal Challengers will be on the auction table with one of the lowest purses amongst the ten teams present at the TATA IPL auction 2023. With a purse of 8.75 crores, who will RCB target and what should they do to bolster their squad? Let's find out!

First, let us have a look at the squad-

Batters: Faf du Plessis (C), Finn Allen, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Suyash Prabhudessai.

All-rounders: Wanindu Hasaranga, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed.

Bowlers: Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood, Siddarth Kaul, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Karn Sharma, David Willey.

Image credit- news18.com

Now, here is the situation- If Virat Kohli is going to bat at no.3, which is his preferred position, then RCB will be targeting an Indian opener to open the innings alongside the skipper, Faf Du Plessis. A Player like Mayank Agarwal, who has played for RCB in the past and is a Karnataka boy, is a good contender. However, the only problem as we already discussed is the purse- We only have 8.75 crores. If You are going to buy Mayank for 5-6 crores, then you will hardly be left with around 2-3 crores, which can be used to buy domestic or local players. So in my opinion, priority one is an opener or a good Indian middle-order batter like Manish Pandey.

Image credit-sportskeeda.com

Another position where RCB needs an improvement is the lower middle order. As we all now,our lower middle order last year was pretty weak. After DK, there are a few good hitters like Hasaranga and Harshal, but they misfired and made great contributions with the ball. However, we will need hard-hitting all-rounder like Sam Curran but it is pretty much impossible to buy him because of his demand and the low purse. There are a few good cheaper options like Jason Holder, but since he is overseas, it will be difficult to accomodate him in the 11, so we will need to look for an Indian to do the job, like Priyam Garg or Jagadeesa Suchith.

However, we are still a pretty balanced side and have a good core by retaining a lots of players like maxwell, Hasaranga, Siraj and many others.