'We were going to get bullied' - Mike Hesson reveals reason for not signing Yuzvendra Chahal

The decision to release leg-dpinner Yuzvendra Chahal ahead of the 2022 IPL mega auction continues to haunt Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Chahal, who now represents the Rajasthan Royals, has been in sensational form, recently becoming the first player in IPL history to take 200 wickets.

Former RCB head coach Mike Hesson has opened up on how the franchise missed out on retaining their prized leg-spinner. Hesson revealed that ahead of the 2022 auctions, franchises had the option to retain only three players, which would have added an extra four crores to their purse.

Also read: Ravi Shastri hails Yuzvendra Chahal for becoming first player to take 200 IPL wickets

This put RCB in a tricky situation as they had targeted retaining both Chahal and the 2021 Purple Cap winner Harshal Patel. 

“He’s (Chahal) an outstanding bowler and I guess when you come to every cycle you have to decide who are you going to retain. It’s one of those things where if you only retain three players, then that’s an extra four crores in the auction,” Hesson said.

Yuzuvendra Chahal was at number 65: Mike Hesson

The franchise had the vision to get the services of both Chahal and Harshal, but the order in which players' names were announced at the auction, made all their plans go in vain.

“That potentially gave us the chance to get both Harshal and Yuzi. But then the order of the auction came up and Yuzuvendra Chahal was at number 65. Because we retained that many players, we were going to get bullied,” added Hesson.

Also read: Amit Mishra congratulates Yuzvendra Chahal for completing 200 IPL wickets

With Chahal's name coming in late, RCB faced a tough choice, either risk going without a spinner early on or wait until the end and hope other franchises didn't have enough money to outbid them. Ultimately, they opted for the safer approach and signed Wanindu Hasaranga for a sum of INR 10.75 crores that year.

RCB are facing the brunt of it, as they find themselves at the bottom of the table with consistently poor performances while RR are sitting comfortably at the top with 14 points.