Royal Challengers Bengaluru signed the star English wicketkeeper batter Phil Salt for Rs 11.50 crore in the IPL mega auction on Sunday. RCB overcame a strong challenge for Kolkata Knight Riders to sign a potential captaincy candidate for the IPL 2025.
After releasing their captain Faf du Plessis, the RCB were in a hunt for the new captain for the 2025 edition. RCB tried to sign their former star KL Rahul who went to Delhi Capitals but managed to sign Salt for just Rs 11.50 crore.
Salt, the world no.2 T20I batter in the ICC rankings, has been tipped to succeed Jos Buttler as England's new white-ball captain. The Challengers were also in the market for a new wicketkeeper after Dinesh Karthik's retirement at the end of the last season.
Meanwhile, RCB's first signing of the 2025 mega auction was the experienced English all-rounder Liam Livingstone who cost just 8.75 crore. After spending a good chunk of their purse on Phil Salt, Bengaluru also splashed Rs 11 crore to sign Indian wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma.
After some quality reinforcement in the batting unit, the RCB signed back the star Australian bowler Josh Hazlewood. RCB were engaged in a thrilling battle with Lucknow Super Giants and emerged winners with a stunning bid of Rs 12.50 crore.
Meanwhile, despite going into the auction with the second-highest purse of Rs 83 crore, the RCB were hesitant to break the bank in the first two sets of marquee players. RCB did manage to show interest in signing 8 of 12 marquee players, including former stars KL Rahul, Mitchell Starc and Yuzvendra Chahal but always seemed half-hearted with their efforts.
List of players RCB signed on Day 1 of the IPL 2025 mega auction
- Liam Livingstone - 8.75 crore
- Phil Salt - 11.5 crore
- Jitesh Sharma - 11 crore
- Josh Hazlewood - 12.5 crore
- Rasikh Salam - 6 crore
- Suyash Sharma - 2.6 crore
