Yuzvendra Chahal's departure from the Royal Challengers Bengaluru side ahead of the 2022 mega auctions came as a massive surprise to many. Chahal, who has touched the elusive feat of 200 wickets in IPL recently, was a match-winner for RCB over the years when he was associated with the franchise. While RCB retained Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj ahead of the 2022 mega auctions, Chahal's name was not on the list.
The former director of cricket of RCB Mike Hesson has opened up on why the team could not keep Chahal and also why he was not picked at the auction. "We didn't retain Chahal because retaining just three players gave the team an extra four crore rupees to spend, through which we aimed to buy back both Chahal and Harshal Patel," Hesson told JioCinema.
Hesson said that he would be frustrated over Chahal throughout his career and even beyond before revealing why the franchise did not retain him. "Yuzi is one I will be frustrated with until I have finished my career and probably beyond. He is an outstanding bowler. I guess when it comes to every cycle, you have got to decide who you are going to retain. It was one of those things where if you only retain three players, you give yourself an extra 4 crore in the auction. That potentially gave us the chance to get both Harshal and Yuzi," he added.
The New Zealander Hesson then also explained that the spin wizard Chahal's name came late at the auctions and that RCB had bought Sri Lankan spin all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga already. "Then the order of the auction came up and Yuzvendra Chahal was at no. 65. Because we had retained that many players we were going to get bullied. After Yuzi there was no other spinner we were interested in. We were obviously interested in Hasaranga as another option if we did not get Yuzi. So we bid for him upfront and then once we hot Hasaranga that meant we could not go for Yuzi," the former RCB DoC added.
Chahal became the first player in IPL history to take 200 wickets in the tournament, a feat which he achieved for Rajasthan Royals in their game against Mumbai Indians on April 22 in IPL 2024. Chahal was part of Mumbai Indians from 2011 to 2013 but played only one game across the two seasons. It was in 2014 when he came into RCB and then became a vital cog for the Virat Kohli-starrer team. The leggie played for the Bengaluru-based franchise from 2014 to 2021 before switching to Rajasthan Royals, his current team in the tournament.
