IPL 2020: 4 players RCB could have bought instead of Kane Richardson

Having finished at the bottom of the eight-team standings with just five wins out of fourteen league games last season, Royal Challengers Bangalore released a majority of the players from its 2019 IPL squad. Going into season thirteen of the IPL, they have bolstered their squad with quality signings at the 2020 IPL auction held at Kolkata on December 19^th last year. Realizing that death bowling is their major Achilles heel, RCB once again bought last the experienced pacer Dale Steyn (for INR 2 crore) whom they released ahead of the auction.

Kane Richardson, who has already played for the Royal Challengers did not have a memorable stint managing just four appearances in which he recorded an economy of 9.71. With Steyn being injury-prone, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Siraj being ineffective, Virat Kohli’s men should have gone for a proven and out-and-out death-over specialist to complement Navdeep Saini instead of Richardson who was bought for INR 4 crore.

Though they have got Udana (T20I economy of 8.51) and Morris (economy of 9.27 in 2019 IPL) to deliver the goods, it remains to be seen whether the two would be able to keep their economies under check.

On that note, let us look at four players RCB could have bought at 2020 IPL auction instead of Kane Richardson:

4. Beuran Hendricks

Hendricks was roped in as a replacement signing by Mumbai Indians to the injured West Indies pacer Alzarri Joseph who himself came in as a replacement to Kiwi fast bowler Adam Milne. The Protea pacer who did not play even a game for Mumbai last year began his IPL career with Kings XI Punjab where he spent two seasons (2014 and 2015) picking up nine wickets in seven matches across those two editions.

The left-arm fast-medium bowler who has 307 First-class, 101 List A and 97 T20 wickets has been a consistent performer with the ball across formats in the South African domestic circuit. The 29-year-old produced a sensational performance by picking-up a five-wicket haul on his Test debut against England at Johannesburg last month.

Hendricks who went unsold at 2020 IPL finished the three-match ODI series against England as the joint-highest wicket-taker with four wickets. At just INR 50 lakhs, Hendricks would have been a good addition for RCB given his bowling variations especially in the death-overs which has been a major issue for the three-time runners-up.