'Du Plessis adds real strength to RCB's batting'

'He is a proven performer, a seasoned campaigner and has delivered at the highest levels.'

Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Sanjay Bangar believes the inclusion of the experienced Faf du Plessis has added 'real strength' to their batting department.

Among RCB's top buys at the IPL Auction in Bengaluru were all-rounder Harshal Patel (Rs 10.75 crore), Sri Lankan leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga (Rs 10.75 crore), Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood (Rs 7.75 crore) and South Africa's veteran batter Faf du Plessis (Rs 7 crore).

Du Plessis, who had joined CSK in 2011, was part of the team in every season except in 2016 and 2017 when they were banned from the IPL. Overall, he has scored 2953 runs in 100 IPL matches at a strike rate of 131, with 22 fifties.

The South African was the second-highest run-getter in IPL 2021 with 633 runs from 16 matches at a strike rate of 138.20 to play a major role in CSK's title triumph. He played a match-winning knock of 86 from 59 balls in the IPL final against Kolkata Knight Riders in Dubai last year.

The 37-year-old is one of the candidates to take over the RCB captaincy after Virat Kohli stepped down from the role after last season.

"The addition of Faf du Plessis adds real strength to the batting department. He is a proven performer, a seasoned campaigner and has delivered at the highest levels. We were looking at someone who can solidify our top order and his inclusion into the team solves just that, with diverse experience of playing across formats gives us options, not only in terms of opening the batting line but also with leadership skills," RCB head coach Sanjay Bangar said.

The RCB head coach also explained how the team's bowling department has faired following the conclusion of the IPL 2022 mega auction.

"Josh Hazelwood brings a great arch to the bowling department. He has been in the circuit for quite some time, showing us every time what he does the best and brings a wealth of experience in the T20 format," said Bangar.

"Wanindu Hasaranga is a wrist spinning all-rounder who can bat at 7, and we were looking closely at picking a quality leggie in the spin department. The fact that he can contribute with the bat as well is a great value add. We required a good No. 6 and a finisher, who we have found in Dinesh Karthik. Harshal Patel did exceptionally well in the last season and was a natural choice for us to go that mile on the bid.

"We are very happy to have him and some of our players return to the RCB family and we couldn't be happy to reinvest in players who we have seen develop over the years. We are now eagerly awaiting the start of our preparations with these talents and get onto the real execution on the field for an exciting season ahead," he added.

'RCB managed to cover all bases'

RCB also bought the experienced wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik (Rs 5.5 crore), wicketkeeper-batter Anuj Rawat (Rs 3.4 crore), spin all-rounder Shahbaz Ahamad (Rs 2.4 crore) along with West Indies all-rounder Sherfane Rutherford (Rs 1 crore).

Speaking about the strategy at the auction, Mike Hesson, Director of Cricket Operations, RCB said, "We are very happy with the way our squad is shaped with the new inclusions around the retained talents. It is a really balanced team of overseas and domestic players. We have managed to cover all our bases with multi-dimensional skill sets and that was the key to our strategy getting into the auctions. The majority of things went as per plan considering the auction dynamics, we managed to check off all the criteria that we had set out to achieve for the RCB team."

"The strategy was to define dedicated roles for players, who we identified, and to strategically go after individual players, managing the purse wisely. We also successfully managed to get some of our RCB players back which was always an important part of our game plan. It is certainly an achievement with the way auction dynamics plays out and the budget remains to be a constraint, but we are very happy with the outcome. We also looked at the availability and how fast all these players just get into the groove and the preparations to form a playing XI. We are certainly excited for the upcoming season and believe we have got the arsenal to put up a quality show," he added.

RCB squad for IPL 2022: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, David Willey, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sherfane Rutherford, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Siddharth Kaul, Jason Behrendorff, Karn Sharma, Suyash Prabhudesai, Chama Miling, Akash Deep, Aneeshwar Gautam, Luvnith Sisodia.