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Mike Hesson Explains Why RCB Let Go Of IPL Legend Yuzvendra Chahal

image-lssrg3kzYuzvendra Chahal in action for Rajasthan Royals during IPL 2023 (BCCI)

Yuzvendra Chahal is set to reprise his role for the Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming IPL 2024 season. Before joining the Rajasthan camp for the 2022 edition of the tournament, the crafty leg-spinner was one of the central figures of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) franchise in the IPL for nearly a decade.

Despite stacking up a remarkable haul of 139 IPL wickets in just 113 games for the RCB during his eight-year stay at the franchise, Chahal was released from the squad ahead of the IPL 2022 auction with hopes of re-acquiring him at the bidding event.

Quite recently, former RCB Director of Cricket narrated the entire ordeal behind Chahal’s exclusion from the team, and expressed his regret behind not being able to re-acquire the cricketer as planned.


Mike Hesson explains Yuzvendra Chahal’s auction dilemma

Former RCB Director of Cricket and ex-New Zealand coach Mike Hesson explained why the franchise had to release Yuzvendra Chahal ahead of the IPL 2022 auction. Hesson claimed that at the time, the franchise only retained three players and was aiming to buy back both Chahal and Purple Cap winner Harshal Patel at the bidding event.

He explained that by retaining only three players, the RCB franchise was left with an additional amount of Rs. 4 crore in their purse. While speaking with cricket.com/tv, Hesson said:

“Yuzvendra Chahal was communicated a huge amount. I spoke to him when we did the initial retention. We only retained three players because we wanted to try and buy back both Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal at the auction. By only retaining three players gave us an extra four crore to try and do that.”

While the RCB management was able to purchase Patel at the auction, Chahal’s name came in at number 65 which made it very difficult for them to get him. Mike Hesson further expressed his regret behind not going for Chahal at the time, because waiting that long for the leg-spinner would have exposed the franchise from getting bullied by other team owners towards the concluding stages of the auction. 

“While Chahal is one of the top five players for the RCB of all time, he was also one of the best ever in the IPL back then. And the fact that he couldn’t make the top two marquee lists at that time was ridiculous. The fact that he came in at number 65 in the auction list meant that he was really difficult for us to guarantee we were going to get him. Yuzi was in set 12 and to wait for him would had meant that we might let go a lot of good bowlers & get bullied by other teams later,” he added.


Watch: Mike Hesson explains why RCB let go of Yuzvendra Chahal

Yuzvendra Chahal has enjoyed just as much success at the Rajasthan Royals camp in the last two seasons. Having claimed 48 wickets from just 31 games, the cricketer will now reprise his role for the franchise in the upcoming IPL 2024 event.

The much-awaited tournament is expected to commence from late March onwards.