Picture Credit: Twitter
Former Team India player and two-time IPL winning captain Gautam Gambhir has stated that Bangalore based franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) would have hard-hitting all-rounder Glenn Maxwell on their radar. According to Gambhir, RCB would go for Maxwell in the mini-IPL auction slated to take place on the 18th of February.
Gautam Gambhir, who himself has played in 11 seasons of the cash-rich IPL, said that RCB needs someone to lessen the burden on ace RCB players Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. He also reckoned that Virat Kohli might open with youngster Devdutt Padikkal. “Probably, they (RCB) will look at someone like Glenn Maxwell because they need to take a lot of pressure out of Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers. ...yes, he (Kohli) is more suited to open the batting. And he will open with Devdutt Padikkal and then, you have AB De Villiers” said Gambhir on a special show of Star Sports named Cricket Connected.
Releasing Umesh Yadav was a big surprise: Gambhir
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Gambhir was surprised as RCB released Indian senior fast bowler Umesh Yadav. He believes that the Indian bowling duo of Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj are pretty young. “They would need some quality players because they have let go of some quality players -Moeen Ali and Umesh Yadav for example. There are not many fast bowlers going around in the Indian circuit at the moment. You’ve got Navdeep Saini who is young, you’ve got someone like Mohammed Siraj, he can go hot and cold in T20 cricket, so probably releasing Umesh Yadav was the big surprise” said Gautam Gambhir.
Gambhir also reckoned that Kings XI Punjab might go behind an experienced Indian fast bowler like Umesh Yadav and foreign seamers Chris Morris and Kyle Jamieson. This would bolster their bowling department, which does not have any experience apart from the presence of Mohammed Shami. Kings XI Punjab will in all likelihood have a revamped team name and logo.
The mini-IPL auction will be taking place on the 18th February at Chennai. The auction is slated to start at 3:00 PM (IST).