"Naive, Baffling": India Great Blasts RCB After Early IPL Auction Performance

Legendary Indian cricket team batter Kris Srikkanth blasted Royal Challengers Bengaluru for their early performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 auction. RCB went for a number of players but ended up buying just all-rounder Liam Livingstone for Rs 8.5 Crore. There was a lot of speculation regarding RCB going big for KL Rahul. However, he ended up joining Delhi Capitals for Rs 14 crore. Srikkanth was not happy with how RCB operated in the first part of the auction and he went on to call their strategy "naive" and "baffling". "Rcb needed one really good keeper batter and it would have been an ideal match to bring back Rahul into the fold that to at a steal of a price ! The strategy they have currently is baffling and quite naive to be frank!" Srikkanth wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Rcb needed one really good keeper batter and it would have been an ideal match to bring back Rahul into the fold that to at a steal of a price ! The strategy they have currently is baffling and quite naive to be frank! #IPLAuction2025 — Kris Srikkanth (@KrisSrikkanth) November 24, 2024

"As usual rcb has missed a trick in the auctions by not going hard for @klrahul ! What a steal for DC though," the former India cricketer further added on social media.

Generational talent Rishabh Pant pipped Shreyas Iyer to become the costliest buy in IPL's history with a Rs 27 crore winning bid from Lucknow Super Giants as teams expectedly went the extra mile for marquee Indian players at the mega auction.

Iyer, who captained the Kolkata Knight Riders to the title earlier this year, and Delhi Capitals' icon Pant, reaped the benefits of making themselves available at the auction following differences with their respective teams.

Iyer was the first one to surpass Mitchell Starc as the IPL's most expensive buy with cash-heavy Punjab Kings shelling out Rs 26.75 crore for their potential captain before Pant overtook the fellow Indian by attracting Rs 25 lakh more from LSG.

Former DC teammates Iyer and Pant have had to deal with adversity in the past couple of years but have shown remarkable resilience and courage to bounce back.

Pant beat all odds to make a successful comeback after a life-threatening car accident in 2022 while Iyer put behind his exclusion from the BCCI central contracts list to lead KKR to their third IPL trophy earlier this year.

Delhi Capitals expectedly enabled the Right To Match to buy back Pant at Rs 20.75 crore but LSG raised the bid to Rs 27 crore and the former decided against matching that amount.

Both Iyer and Pant are expected to lead their new teams in IPL 2025, which will begin March 14.

(With PTI inputs)