Speaking exclusively on Star Sports show ‘Game Plan – Auction Special’, former India cricketer Irfan Pathan spoke on the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad and who they will be looking to target in this year’s auctions, he said“Look, as far as I’m concerned, RCB look pretty much a set side, they have fantastic openers, now Virat Kohli’s form is well within. They have four players who could actually do both the jobs, especially Maxwell and Lomror can bowl in matches, as well as Hasaranga and Shahbaz Ahmed. They both can actually bat as well. So, they have quite a few all-rounders, they have good fast bowlers – Hazelwood and Harshal Patel.”
“The only thing which I thought last year was they were bowling Akash Deep in the powerplay, who’s quite young. He bowled pretty decently whenever he got the chance, but if they can get one quality fast bowler who can bowl with the new ball I think that side of RCB will look much better, because Hazelweood, we need to keep in mind, it’s an Ashes year and its very important for Australia and England players so they fully focus on that. The international workload will be very high for Hazelwood. So, if you have a backup for him, and I think that’s what they must be thinking as well – to find a good fast bowler and few domestic players to fill the middle order as well. As far as back up is concerned, I think they’ll do pretty well in the auction,” added Pathan.
Speaking exclusively on Star Sports show ‘Game Plan – Auction Special’, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar spoke on how Kolkata Knight Riders will approach the auction with the limited funds they have and the replacements they will be looking for in this year’s auction, he said, “See, it’s a performance that we’ve seen KKR with regards to the auction, they’ve paid seven crores for Mavi as well, so they tend to go slightly overboard, I don’t think they are the best team at the auction table. Mumbai Indians for a long time, CSK, have had that reputation of being really good at the auctions. But having said that, I think Shardul Thakur is a proven material, I know he didn’t have a great time with Delhi capitals and also for India, not at the top of his game, but in Indian conditions, considering his danger with the bat, perhaps he is somebody that you will say ‘oh okay its worth spending that’. Lockie was with them earlier, Lockie, we have seen have a good time with KKR but didn’t quite do his part for his new franchise.
“So, it’s a bit of a gamble there. When I look at KKR’s playing eleven, VenkateshIyer, Gurbaz, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Andre Russell, the batting looks OK, Sunil Narine and VarunChakaravarthy are there. So, I think it’s some pace support is what they need and understandably that’s where they pay the big bucks, so you can understand that,” he added.
Catch all the drama from the IPL 2023 Auctions on 23rd December, 2022, 2.30 pm IST LIVE & Exclusive on the Star Sports Network
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