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'Would Cummins Have Bowled From Both Ends?' - Former KKR Sensation Slams RCB

image-lqhoqz28RCB had a questionable strategy behind Cummins bid (Twitter)

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were one of the biggest disappointments of the IPL 2024 mini-auction held in Dubai as the popular franchise failed to make the rightful usage of its remaining purse and came back from the bidding war with dissatisfying choices. 

At one point, RCB shocked its fans and experts by making a bid worth INR 20 crores for Australian skipper and spearhead Pat Cummins even as they only had INR 23.25 crores available to them to fill multiple slots. One of those who couldn't believe his eyes seeing RCB wholeheartedly go after Cummins without recognising the potential after-effects is Aakash Chopra.

Chopra said he had to pinch himself twice as he couldn't believe or understand why RCB reached that far into the Cummins tussle with his eventual holders Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) despite carrying an insignificant sum. 

The former India opener asked did the franchise not even consider what would've happened if the Cummins deal had materialised as they would've had less than 3 crores in the kitty to rebuild the rest of the bowling attack. 


Chopra Slams RCB's Cummins Love 

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Chopra asked how could RCB think-tank agreed to pay a fortune to buy Cummins' services at the expense of a poor other end in the bowling department. The franchise not only needed to fill pacers' slots but also didn't have a quality spin option up its sleeves. 

"They had totally made up their mind that they wanted Pat Cummins at any cost and they kept going after him, kept lifting the paddle. It went till 20 crores and I folded my hands and said - 'think a little'. If you had got Pat Cummins for 20 crores and you had 23.25 crores, would Pat Cummins have bowled from both ends?" Chopra said. 


"If they had bought Pat Cummins, if SRH had pulled out at that stage, and they would have got him for 20 crores, their team would have become extremely weak. When you released so many players and if you had picked Pat Cummins on a small Chinnaswamy ground with a flat pitch, you would have been hit a lot," he added. 

Thankfully, common sense prevailed on time and RCB dropped out of the bidding war with Sunrisers and let the pacer go to the Orange Army. 

Unfortunately for RCB, however, they still couldn't quite make the best usage of the purse remaining after picking Alzarri Joseph (11.50 crores), Yash Dayal (5 crores), Tom Curran (1.5 crores), Lockie Ferguson (2 crores), Swapnil Singh (20 lahks) and Saurav Chauhan (20 lahks) at the mini-auction.