IPL 2018: 4 wrong choices of players that could prove costly for franchises
They say the IPL title is won not when the season kicks off, but on the day of the auction itself. The IPL auction 2018 was a cracker of an event. It saw 169 players find a franchise for the 11th edition of the IPL. Some team owners were enthusiastically bidding for most of the players while others had done their homework and were just sitting back and relaxing as they were waiting for the players they had chosen to come.
The IPL auction involves a lot of thinking on the owner's part. While most teams managed to build a rock-solid squad, there were few fundamental errors made by some teams which could prove very costly during the summer.
Here is a look at 4 instances when the teams got their permutations-combinations wrong.
#4 Moeen Ali
Moeen Ali was picked up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore during the IPL auction 2018, when the spin roster of the RCB reads Yuzvendra Chahal, Pawan Negi, Washington Sundar and Murugan Ashwin. This raises a question what made them go for Moeen Ali despite of having so many spinners in their ranks. Also, considering the RCB's mighty batting line-up, it is highly unlikely that Ali will get ample chances to explore his batting potential in the IPL.
With AB de Villiers, Brendon McCullum, Quinton de Kock already occupying three overseas slots and the last one likely to be used on a foreign seamer (Nathan Coulter-Nile/Chris Woakes/Tim Southee), it is hard to believe that Ali will get a chance in the playing XI.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore as always have heaps of big names and talent in abundance going in to the 11th edition of the IPL. Saying so, one area where they lack is experience in Indian batting barring Virat Kohli.
Maybe, they could have invested more in Indian batting at the auction. A spin-bowling all-rounder is really not the need of the hour for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Ali may well have to spend the entire season warming the bench.
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