The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were expected to sign top Australian stars like Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 auction but had to settle for lesser-favoured targets. While RCB went into a bidding war for both Starc and Cummins, they eventually had to settle for Lockie Ferguson and Alzarri Joseph as other franchises outbid them for the two coveted Australian stars. RCB were even interested in uncapped Indian pacer Kartik Tyagi but could only land former Gujarat Titans pacer Yash Dayal.
RCB had released the likes of Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga and Josh Hazlewood before the auction. As fans looked to evaluate RCB's bowling attack in IPL 2024 vs their bowling attack in IPL 2023, most expectations met with disappointments in reality.
Upset with RCB's bowling unit for the new season, fans took to social media to unleash some hilarious "expectations vs reality" memes.
"I think, to bring forward our interest in Alzarri and to have a good go at him because he's a player that we really like now with Alzarri, he bowls at high pace, he's got a high release point, so he gets bounce. We know bounce is important at the Chinnaswamy (Stadium). He's also got fantastic death skills. You look at his record and he's stacks up against anyone at the death." said RCB's Director of Cricket Mo Bobat after the franchise manage to sign Jospeph for a fee of INR 11.5 crore.
"He's also someone that's playing regular international cricket all around the world and franchise all around the world. So he's someone that can adapt to conditions and surfaces. And he's someone also that the captain knows really well. So (skipper) Faf (du Plessis) and him have a really good relationship and they've got a real trusted dynamic between them," he added.
In the IPL 2023 season, Yash Dayal famously conceded five consecutive sixes to Kolkata Knight Riders' Rinku Singh. But, Bobat was delighted to have signed the left-arm pacer.
"So for us, it ticks a lot of boxes with Yash Dayal, obviously a slightly different pick in that sense. We like the left arm angle, we like the fact that he moves the ball up front. We want to make sure we've got the right battery of bowlers domestically that can supplement the likes of Alzarri," Bobat said.
"Obviously, we've got Cameron Green as well. So we think we've got a really nice balanced attack with real variety. And we want to make sure that we have got variety whenever we step out on the field from a pace bowling perspective.
"So we've got enough bounce, we've got enough pace, we've got (Mohammed) Siraj, who's a champion swing bowler, up front, and we've got a left-arm angle. So it's us putting together our arsenal to take on the opposition," the Englishman added.