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Former New Zealand and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) head coach, Mike Hesson, has expressed his reservations about the RCB auction strategy following the acquisition of Australian all-rounder Cameron Green. Hesson believed that the franchise could have avoided this move, which disrupted their overall auction plans for the IPL 2024.
Mike Hesson details the impact of the Cameron Green deal on RCB’s IPL 2024 auction plan
The confusion surrounding Hardik Pandya‘s move prompted RCB to acquire Green from Mumbai Indians (MI) in a significant trade deal worth Rs 17.5 crore. Hesson, in an interview with cricket.com, raised concerns about the hefty investment in Green, emphasizing how it affected RCB’s auction approach.
“We’ve been in auctions where we have bullied other teams. We were able to get ourselves into that position by releasing players. But I thought after the retention list, RCB were in a really strong position. And then they spent ₹17 crore on Cam Green. Cam Green is a fine player, but his buy made a huge difference to their auction strategy,” Hesson said.
He particularly questioned the decision to bid up to Rs 20.25 crore for Pat Cummins, suggesting that the substantial spending limited their flexibility in the subsequent auction.
“I never would have bid for Pat Cummins to that level Rs 20.25 crore. Never. You basically show your hand that that’s as far as you can go. So you have another two or three teams that know that ‘that’s all that RCB have’. The other teams will then forego a lot of other options to save more than 23 crore in order to outbid RCB. So I think RCB showed their hands probably too much with the Pat Cummins move. But I can understand why they did it. Because they didn’t want to end up with nobody. That’s the issue when you buy Cameron Green for Rs 17 crore,” the 49-year-old concluded.
Also READ: Royal Challengers Bangalore full squad: Complete list of RCB players after IPL 2024 auction
Green’s performance in IPL 2023
Green, who played 16 matches for MI in IPL 2023, showcased his all-round abilities, scoring 452 runs at an average of 50.22 and a strike rate of 160.28. His medium pace also contributed with six wickets. Despite Green’s impressive performance, Hesson believes the significant investment in him could have been allocated differently to address RCB’s bowling department needs.
RCB’s auction pursuits, challenges and late auction moves
Heading into the mini-auction with a purse of Rs 23.25 crore, RCB faced challenges in securing their desired players, missing out on targets like Cummins and Gerald Coetzee. The franchise eventually acquired West Indies seamer Alzarri Joseph for Rs 11.50 crore. RCB continued to rebuild their pace bowling with OTHERS buys, including left-arm pacer Yash Dayal for Rs 5 crore and England all-rounder Tom Curran at his base price of Rs 1.50 crores.
In the second round of the accelerated stage, RCB added further depth to their squad with the inclusion of Lockie Ferguson for his base price of Rs 2 crore. The team concluded their auction proceedings by securing Swapnil Singh and Saurav Chauhan for their base price of Rs 20 lakh each.
