'It was a big decision' - RCB Director of Cricket on releasing Mohammed Siraj

The nature of IPL is such that a constant churn is inevitable. However, not retaining one of the franchise's key players who has helped the side flourish over the years is something which does come as a jolt. This is what occurred as soon as the news was out regarding Mohammed Siraj is being released into the mega auction.    

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru Director of Cricket Mo Bobat admitted that it was a tricky call to make, bearing in mind Siraj's closely-knit relationship with former skipper Virat Kohli as well as his diverse range of bowling skills.

“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,” stated Bobat, as quoted by the official RCB website.

Bobat put it down to the think tank wanting to optimise the bowling group as per the demands of their home venue, considering Yash Dayal as the nucleus around the mega auction picks they will make.

“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,” mentioned Bobat.

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That's part of the thinking behind that non-retention: Flower

Head coach, Andy Flower, followed up Bobat's viewpoint and explained the rationale behind Siraj's release. “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.

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Siraj has been a part of RCB since 2018. Two of his most successful seasons in terms of the wickets tally were the previous couple of editions, where he ended up with an aggregate of 34 wickets.