Robin Uthappa and Eoin Morgan did not mince their words in criticizing Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for not having made enough purchases during the first session of the Indian Premier League (IPL) Mega Auction. RCB have made a purchase in the Marquee Sets by acquiring the services of English all-rounder Liam Livingstone for the next three years. Livingstone was bought by the Bengaluru-based franchise for INR 8.75 crore. RCB has entered the bidding war for the likes of Rishabh Pant, KL RahulMitchell Starc and David Miller, but the franchise pulled out midway.

Surprisingly, the franchise opted not to exercise its match right for Mohammed Siraj, who ultimately went to Gujarat Titans for INR 12.25 crores.

Speaking on JioCinema, Uthappa said he felt sad for RCB fans as he couldn’t understand the mindset of not picking on players, despite having the second most large stock exchange, before the auction.

“I’m a local boy, I’m confused. You didn’t make more than one pick in the first two marquee sets. When you’re trying to rebuild a team, when you’re trying to figure out which way you’re going go there, you have the fans that support you year after year They put their emotions, their hearts on the line. They then show up and to support the team the tweets that come in and you see they feel so left. me, as an RCB fan and former RCB player RCB, I feel like they missed the mark here,” Uthappa said.

“And you just wonder where are they going? And because they didn’t go after Mitchell Starc, which they should have done, because you want a solid bowler there. They didn’t go after to KL Rahul. And they didn’t. After Rishabh Pant or Shreyas Iyer. And okay, Shreyas Iyer, you want to go for Rishabh Pant who is a talented player. can go up to 23 million for one of these players They didn’t even go that far I just feel bad for the fans because they supported this team so much “The fans really say that, Robbie, they do. you look at it,” he added.

Eoin Morgan echoes Uthappa’s sentiments

Former England captain Eoin Morgan also echoed Uthappa’s comments, saying RCB not going after the Marquee Players doesn’t make sense, but he expressed hope to eventually see the franchise s take on other players later in the auction.

“What Robbie talked about, I completely agree. You can afford to do both. You can afford to splurge early, but also keep your powder dry for later. And you watch how they put together their leadership group, their decision makers, you have Andy Flower, Mo Bobat So there’s a huge amount of analytics that every team has all the data, all the numbers. ultimately it comes down to who poses the right questions and gets the best value out of the available players. That’s the challenge for every team,” Morgan said.

“And I feel like RCB seems to be finding value elsewhere. I can’t wait to see where he is. Maybe Hess mentioned it earlier, maybe Ishan Kishan. But again , you can hit with both hands. You could have easily gone for KL, especially at this price You said you were going to 22 crores, Robbie You still have 50 crores left, even if you go to 22 crores. crores so I can’t see where their assets are, really, in the first day or so of the auction,” Morgan said.

“So it’s going to be fascinating to see how this plays out,” he added.