RCB plug pace concerns with Alzarri, Dayal

Bengaluru: Apart from waging and losing a strong bidding war to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Pat Cummins, the Royal Challengers were rather mute spectators for much of the mini-auction but still left the table content after roping in Alzarri Joseph.

With their core already set, the Royal Challengers had clearly indicated on the eve of the auction that their main priority would be signing an overseas fast bowler who can bowl primarily at the death and an homegrown spinner with the ability to contain the runs in the middle overs.

Armed with Rs 23.25 crore, they went all out for Australia’s ODI World Cup-winning skipper Cummins but when they couldn’t match up to SRH, they settled for West Indies’ Joseph. They had to tussle with Chennai Super Kings for a while before securing the strapping Antiguan for Rs 11.5 crore.

Joseph, who has represented Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans for a combined total of 19 games (20 wickets), hasn’t necessarily set the IPL on fire but has often shown with the West Indies that he can be extremely dangerous on his day. It’s that trait that forced the management to secure his services.

“He’s got lots of attributes. Firstly, he bowls high on pace which is great and bowls from a really good release height that gets him good bounce. At the Chinnaswamy, that would be great,” said Mo Bobat, RCB’s Director of Cricket. “Another thing good about him is he’s a recognised death bowler. And again at the Chinnaswamy where runs can go at a high rate during the innings, having someone who has got the experience, skill set and composure at the death is key for us.”

Royal Challengers couldn’t get hold of a spinner but bizarrely instead invested Rs 5 crore on Yash Dayal, despite the 26-year-old left-arm medium pacer possessing an expensive economy rate of 10.02 in 14 IPL games. They also roped in England all-rounder Tom Curran and Lockie Ferguson as potential back-ups for Cameron Green and Joseph respectively. Saurav Chauhan and Swapnil Singh was signed towards the end for base prices of Rs 20 lakh each.

Squad: Faf du Plessis (capt), Rajat Patidar, Virat Kohli, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash S Prabhudesai, Will Jacks, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Cameron Green, Mayank Dagar, Manoj Bhandage, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Rajan Kumar, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Saurav Chauhan, Swapnil Singh.