Royals were tracking Aryaman Birla for a long time, explains Manoj Badale

The eleventh edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) is fast approaching and the mega-auction was recently done and dusted. All the teams rebuilt their squads after retaining some of their key players and also using Right to Match cards for them. Though Rajasthan Royals could retain only Steve Smith as they were at a disadvantage when it came to retaining the core players of their team. However, they picked a couple of interesting players like Jofra Archer and Aryaman Birla.

Rajasthan franchise also shelled huge amounts during the auctions picking two most expensive players across the two days. Ben Stokes was signed for Rs. 12.5 Crore, while Jaydev Unadkat went for Rs 11.5 Crore which was massive. But even after that they still managed to buy some brilliant players like Jos Buttler, Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi amongst other.

We have always admired talent

Rajasthan Royals picked Aryaman Birla, the all-rounder, for a decent price of Rs. 30 lakhs. The co-owner of the team Manoj Badale explained his signing and cleared that they have always admired the talent in the domestic players. “We have been tracking Aryaman for a while. We have always been huge admirers of his talent and surprised by how much he developed. We like his left-arm spin and his batting this year has been outstanding,” he told to live mint during an interview.

He also informed that staying in the UK helped for his team’s cause as he has been watching Jofra Archer for a long time and that is why they went for him aggressively in the auction. “One of the benefits is I live in the UK and I have knowledge of English cricket. Archer is a rare talent identified by the English hierarchy. We were not surprised by his success in the Big Bash League (BBL). What was worrying was that given his success in the BBL, everyone knew who he is,” Badale concluded.

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