Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
With the talks around the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction intensifying, all ten franchises have confirmed their list of retained players. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who are yet to win a title in the IPL since the inception of the league in 2008, retained three players from their squad of 2024. While Virat Kohli was a sure choice, Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal were the other two players who were retained by RCB.
Despite the experienced set of players, in a shocking move the franchise released Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj, now set to get into the auction later this month. Seeing this move, RCB Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat admitted that releasing Siraj was a tricky call.
It was a big decision for us to make to not retain Siraj: Mo Bobat
Speaking after the revelation of retained players list, RCB Director of Cricket Mo Bobat agreed that releasing Siraj was “a big decision”. “Probably the discussion that took up the most time for us actually was our decision to whether we retain or release Mohammed Siraj. When he's got his tail up, he's got that real fire that you can see that becomes infectious for the rest of the team. He bounces quite strongly off Virat and those two as a combination have been quite powerful. It was a big decision for us to make to not retain Siraj because of all of those skills and attributes,” Mo Bobat stated, as quoted by the official RCB website.
He also highlighted that the franchise will put to their think tank to optimise the bowling lineup as per the demands of their home venue. “We've come to think that given some of the unique elements of performing at the Chinnaswamy, we feel quite strongly that we need a lot of variety in our attack. We want to give ourselves as many options as possible going into the auction to look at how we complement that with Yash and with our other overseas picks so that we can be as effective with the ball as possible,” Bobat further mentioned.
RCB Head Coach Andy Flower also followed Mo Bobat’s viewpoint and explained on the franchise’s decision to release Siraj. “We will monitor and target certain players in the auction that we think will bring us the particular skills that we require, particularly at the Chinnaswamy with seven home games. That’s part of the thinking behind that non-retention,” added Flower.
It is to be seen that Siraj has been part of the Red and Gold since 2018. In IPL 2024, Siraj finished with 15 wickets from 14 matches, at an economy of 33.06. Moreover, two of his most successful seasons came where he ended up with an aggregate of 34 wickets.
