IPL 2022: RCB managed to cover all bases with multi-dimensional skill sets, says Mike Hesson

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) acquired Indian 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), South Africa's veteran batsman Faf du Plessis (Rs 7 crore), and these all are the top buys among the 19 players bought by the team at the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction 2022. In its endeavour to build a bold brigade for excellence in the upcoming IPL season, RCB also added steel and resolve to the squad with the additions of veteran India wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik (Rs 5.5 crore), wicketkeeper-batsman Anuj Rawat (Rs 3.4 crore), left-arm orthodox bowler & left-hand batsman Shahbaz Ahamad (Rs 2.4 crore), 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