Mike Hesson, a former RCB DoC, discusses why the team was unable to keep Chahal for the 2022 IPL season

Mumbai, India: Former Director of Cricket for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Mike Hesson, explained why the team decided not to bid for Indian spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in the Indian Premier League 2022 season.

Hesson, the team’s director of cricket from 2019 to 2023, offered these remarks after Chahal became the first bowler to ever achieve the 200-wicket milestone in IPL history.

But Yuzvendra’s name appeared quite late in the bidding. To strengthen their assault, they were also considering Wanindu Hasaranga, a spin all-rounder from Sri Lanka. The RCB pursued Hasaranga when his name surfaced early in the auction, missing out on Chahal, whose name appeared considerably later.

“Yuzi is someone I will continue to be irritated with for much of my career and maybe beyond. He bowls quite well. I suppose you have to make a decision on who to keep at the end of each cycle. It was one of those situations where you get an additional 4 crore in the auction if you just keep three players. That may have given us the opportunity to get both Yuzi and Harshal,” Hesson said on Jio Cinema to former Indian batter Robin Uthappa.

“When the auction order was announced, Yuzvendra Chahal was listed at number 65. We were going to be teased because we had kept so many players. There was no other spinner we were interested in after Yuzi. Clearly, we were considering Hasaranga as a backup plan in case Yuzi wasn’t available. We thus made an upfront proposal for him, and once we had Hasaranga hot, we were unable to pursue Yuzi,” he said.

With the top figures of 5/40, Chahal has claimed 200 wickets at an average of 21.60 in 153 outings. Throughout his IPL career, he has claimed six four-wicket totals and one five-wicket total.

During the Sawai Man Singh Stadium IPL encounter against the Mumbai Indians, the seasoned Indian spinner achieved this milestone.

It was in the eighth over of the match when Chahal had this amazing event in his cricket career. Chahal reached his second century of wickets when he caught and bowled Mohammed Nabi, an all-rounder for MI and Afghanistan, for 23 runs.

Before joining the Rajasthan Royals in 2022, Chahal played for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the Mumbai Indians. He got 139 wickets for RCB in 113 matches, but in the one game he played, he had 0 wickets for MI. RR has already claimed 61 wickets in 39 games.

When the game started, the Mumbai Indians chose to bat first after winning the toss. MI was 20/3 for a while. Then came Tilak, who scored 99 runs with Nehal Wadhera and 32 runs with Mohammed Nabi. MI was able to reach 179/9 in their 20 overs.

Sandeep Sharma, Rajasthan’s best bowler, claimed an impressive five wickets. Trent Boult finished his four overs with 2/32 as well. Avesh Khan secured a single wicket. Yuzvendra Chahal, a spinner, took a wicket as well, making history as the first player to reach 200 IPL wickets.

Jaiswal scored 104* in 60 balls during the run-chase, his second IPL century, with nine fours and seven sixes. Jos Buttler and captain Sanju’s knocks helped RR win by nine wickets.

The ‘Player of the Match’ trophy went to Jaiswal.

With seven victories and one defeat, or 14 points, RR leads the points table. With three wins, five defeats, and six points, MI is ranked sixth.

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