WATCH: Hilarious picture of RCB head joining hands as Josh Hazlewood’s name came up for bidding in IPL Auction
RCB Head and Hazlewood (Source: Twitter)
The Vice-President and Head of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Rajesh Menon delivered a comical response to the announcement of Josh Hazlewood’s name during the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai on Tuesday, December 19. Menon expressed his amusement by making a folded-hands gesture when auctioneer Mallika Sagar introduced Hazlewood.
The Australian pacer had set his base price at ₹2 crore. Hazlewood remained unsold on a day when his fellow Australian speedsters, Mitchell Starc (₹24.75 crores) and Pat Cummins (₹20.5 crores) secured deals for over 20 crores. According to reports, the Indian Cricket Board (ICB) has conveyed to the franchises that Hazlewood will be the sole Australian player not fully available for IPL 2024 due to expecting the birth of his child in late March. The legendary India pacer is anticipated to be available only from the first week of May.
Despite going unsold at the IPL 2024 auction, franchises like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Titans, Punjab Kings, and Sunrisers Hyderabad still have the financial capability to acquire Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood. Hazlewood, with previous stints at Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, and RCB, had a modest performance in the last season but had an impressive 2022 season with 20 wickets in 12 games. In total, he has secured 35 wickets in 27 IPL matches with an economy rate of 8.06.
Watch RCB management’s reaction when asked about Hazlewood:
Fantastic scenes here as the notoriously inept Punjab Kings manage to not only purchase a player they didn’t want, (Shashank Singh), they also admit to this in front of literally everyone. Singh we can guess is sat at home wondering whether to show up in March. #IPLAuction #pbks pic.twitter.com/PtLQv9t07H
— Punjab Kings UK🇬🇧👑 (@PunjabKingsUK) December 19, 2023
RCB picked up six players in auction
The RCB franchise made six acquisitions at the IPL 2024 auction to complete their 25-member squad for the upcoming season. In a surprising move, they even made significant investments in West Indies pacer Alzarri Joseph (₹11.5 crore) and Yash Dayal (₹5 crore). Additionally, the franchise secured New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson at his base price of ₹2 crore. Other additions to the squad included Tom Curran (₹1.5 crore) as well as Saurav Chauhan and Swapnil Singh (₹20 lakh each).
RCB Final squad: Akash Deep, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Faf Du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Himanshu Sharma, Karn Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar (T), Mohammed Siraj, Rajan Kumar, Rajat Patidar, Reece Topley, Suyash Prabhudessai, Virat Kohli, Vyshak Vijay Kumar, Will Jacks, Cameron Green (T), Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Lockie Ferguson, Tom Curran, Saurav Chauhan and Swapnil Singh.
