Royal Challengers Bangalore
South African pacer Dale Steyn returned, while Aussie white-ball captain Aaron Finch and South Africa’s Chris Morris has been roped in by Royal Challengers Bangalore ahead of the impending Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 season. As many as eight players were roped in by RCB in Kolkata on Thursday, making them one of the busiest at the IPL 2020 auction. At the end of the auction, RCB have INR 6.40 crores remaining after spending 21.5 crores on Thursday.
Finch was roped in for INR 4.40 crores as he became the first player to appear for eight different IPL franchises, while Morris was brought for INR 10.75 crores making him the third-costliest player on Thursday auction. Meanwhile, Steyn returned to RCB for the third time having being roped in for his base price of INR 2 crores.
"From an Aaron Finch point of view, he he brings a lot of experience to the group. It's not about a second captain, but he adds presence to that leadership group as an overseas player. There's a lot of talent in the squad, and Finch, as someone with a lot of experience, bring a lot to the group," said RCB coach Mike Hesson during the auction.
The Virat Kohli-led franchise has never won an IPL trophy despite being one of the heavyweight sides since the inception of the tournament. They have reached the final of the tournament thrice in 2009, 2011 and 2016. From the past two seasons they have been dreadful despite having Kohli and AB de Villiers in their ranks, RCB finished last on the points table.
The problem for RCB in the recent times is always been their bowling department, they invested so much money on the batting but when it came to the other department they made some tactical errors in the judgement of players.
For 2020 season, RCB have revamped their sporting management as they parted ways head coach Gary Kirsten and bowling coach Ashish Nehra. They hired former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson as the director of operations and Simon Katich as the head coach to revamp the team.
PLAYERS RETAINED: Virat Kohli, Moeen Ali, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Devdutt Padikkal, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Navdeep Saini, AB de Villiers.
PLAYERS RELEASED: Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Akshdeep Nath, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Colin de Grandhomme, Prayas Ray Barman, Tim Southee, Kulwant Khejroliya, Himmat Singh, Heinrich Klaasen, Milind Kumar.
PLAYERS BOUGHT: Aaron Finch, Dale Steyn, Shabaz Nadeem, Kane Richardson, Joshua Philippe, Pavan Deshpande, Chris Morris, Isuru Udana.
FULL SQUAD: Virat Kohli, Moeen Ali, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Devdutt Padikkal, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Navdeep Saini, AB de Villiers, Aaron Finch, Dale Steyn, Shabaz Nadeem, Kane Richardson, Joshua Philippe, Pavan Deshpande, Chris Morris, Isuru Udana
