After the highly anticipated Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction, Mo Bobat, Director of Cricket for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), explained the team’s strategic and audacious approach to the auctions and decision-making. He underlined that RCB avoided the unpredictability of the auction and instead concentrated on assembling a competitive and well-balanced team.
The mainstay of RCB’s strategy was the acquisition of explosive batsmen like Tim David (INR 3 crore), Liam Livingstone (INR 8.75 crore), and Phil Salt (INR 11.5 crore), who brought aggression to the top and middle order and fit in with the “bold brand of cricket.” By bringing back Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood (INR 12.5 crore), who is familiar with the Chinnaswamy surface, RCB also assembled a tempting bowling unit. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (INR 10.75 crore) will be his partner.
“RCB has never won the IPL, let’s face it. We used to concentrate on investing heavily on a select group of players. We took a different approach this year, trying to put together a club that was balanced rather than overspending on top-order hitters like we may have in the past.
According to Mo Bobat, Jitesh Sharma is a talented Indian player who brings significant strength down the order and may be able to duplicate some of DK’s finishing.
The team management made the brave and purposeful decision to skip the first round of the auction and concentrate only on players they really wanted. In line with the larger objectives for the forthcoming season and beyond, each of the winning bids addressed important positions and broadened the team’s composition.
The addition of the seasoned Krunal Pandya (INR 5.75 crore) and West Indian Romario Shepherd gave the batting and bowling departments steel, while Indian wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma (INR 11 crore) gave the lower order a finishing boost and created a formidable batting lineup.
It was fantastic to have Bhuvi join the team today; his skill level and Krunal’s will help Hazlewood’s return to RCB. Having him return to the club would be fantastic. We witnessed Yash Dayal’s performance from the previous year, and a Rasikh is also competing for a spot. I believe that kind of skill is what Chinnaswamy needs in the bowling department. Therefore, it feels nice to be secure with that degree of ability. In fact, we received many of our initial choices. Thus, we’re quite pleased with our current situation,” Andy Flower, the head coach, stated.
The purchasing approach also demonstrated a significant belief in uncapped players who are focused on results, meeting the demands of the daring teams the management wants to build. That attitude is demonstrated by the acquisitions of Rasikh Dar (INR 6 crore) and Suyash Sharma (INR 2.2 crore). Alongside Yash Dayal, the team’s goal was to assemble a potent Indian bowling core that would be effective from the beginning to the end. Suyash, whose spin bowling deceived numerous batters, and Rasikh, who showed himself to be an especially economical possibility in the 2024 Indian Premier League, were part of that goal.
We regretfully had to bail out and were unable to return Yuzi [Chahal] to the people, but we are thrilled with Suyash Sharma’s performance. He bowls aggressively and is a top-notch leg-spinner, and we believe he can contribute,” Bobat said.
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