Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had a brilliant season in the previous edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They managed to reach the playoffs and played top-quality cricket throughout the season.
Now, their focus must be to win the prestigious IPL title for the first time in the upcoming edition of the cash-rich league. However, ahead of IPL 2021 auctions, RCB have released quite a few star cricketers in the recently concluded release and retention day of all franchises.
One of the most surprising moves was the release of South African all-rounder Chris Morris, who picked up 11 wickets in 9 games during IPL 2020 at an impressive economy rate of 6.63. He bagged the important breakthroughs whenever required and provided the much-needed balance to the side in order to help them win several games.
Morris was priceless to the Challengers side, given there were no better fast bowling options than him, but there were also some concerns regarding his fitness. He did miss a few crucial games due to the injury. And this was the major reason why Morris has been released from the squad, as revealed by RCB’s Director of Cricket Operations, Mike Hesson.
In a video shared by the official Twitter handle of RCB, Hesson could be heard stating that Morris’ “lack of high-level cricket” in recent times was the prime reason why he was ignored to be retained in the outfit. Hesson also mentioned that the release of Australian opening batsman Aaron Finch was because of his poor season with the bat in IPL 2020.
“As a 10 crore signing, Morris was a big part of our resource. But he had some injuries and missed quite a lot of cricket. Morris hasn’t played high-level cricket since then, so there is some risk there. As for Finch, it did not quite work out for him as we’d have liked. We have (Australian wicketkeeper-batsman) Josh Philippe as a top-order cover (for Finch),” said Hesson.
Bold Diaries: Mike Hesson explains RCB’s Retention Strategy
Our Director of Cricket Operations, @CoachHesson gives us an insight into the thinking behind the retention and release of players. #PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/GbcY5oCyiW
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) January 20, 2021
