"It's not easy looking at Yuzi go to 200 wickets"- AB de Villiers recalls Yuzvendra Chahal leaving RCB as 'heartbreaking moment'
Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers and veteran Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal spent eight seasons together at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) before the latter was released by the franchise ahead of the IPL 2022 Mega Auction.
De Villiers has been pretty vocal about how RCB should have never let Chahal go and he reiterated this when the latter became the first bowler in the history of the IPL to take 200 wickets. Chahal completed the feat when he dismissed Mumbai Indians (MI) all-rounder Mohammad Nabi on Monday, April 22.
In a video on his YouTube channel, here's what AB de Villiers had to say about watching Yuzvendra Chahal play for a team that wasn't RCB (11:47):
"RCB let him go. It was a heartbreaking moment. He was a part of the furniture there and also their best bowler. It was crazy that he got left out of that franchise. It's not easy looking at Yuzi go to 200 wickets and him not being a part of RCB."
Chahal is enjoying a sensational IPL 2024 season with 13 wickets from eight games so far and is behind Jasprit Bumrah on the Purple Cap list only because of the latter's better economy rate.
Mike Hesson on RCB letting Yuzvendra Chahal go
Former RCB director of cricket operations, Mike Hesson, opened up on why the franchise chose not to retain Yuzvendra Chahal during the IPL 2022 mega auction.
Hesson shed light on the retention dynamics and how Chahal's late entry into the auction meant that they couldn't risk missing out on Sri Lankan wrist-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga. On this, he told Robin Uthappa on Jio Cinema:
"It was one of those things where if you only retain three players, you give yourself an extra 4 crore in the auction. Then the order of the auction came up and Yuzvendra Chahal was at no. 65. After Yuzi there was no other spinner we were interested in. We were obviously interested in Hasaranga as another option if we did not get Yuzi. So we bid for him upfront and then once we got Hasaranga that meant we could not go for Yuzi."
Hesson accepted that not bringing Chahal back to RCB would be one of his major regrets even after the former called time on his professional career. The veteran leg-spinner is currently enjoying his time at the Rajasthan Royals, who are on top of the IPL 2024 points table.