Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru Director of Cricket Mike Hesson opened up on the reason for not retaining ace spinner Yuzvendra Chahal ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction. Chahal, who is the leading wicket-taker of RCB in IPL, spun their web despite the small boundaries at M Chinnaswamy Stadium and became the fan favourite. He played 113 matches for RCB from 2014 to 2021 and claimed 139 wickets at an impressive economy rate of 7.58.

However, the franchise shocked the cricketing community by not retaining him ahead of the mega auction as they went ahead with Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj, while Chahal was shown the exit doors behind their most successful bowler.

Hesson, who was part of the RCB team management during that time, revealed the franchise plan was to retain only three players as it gave them an extra 4 crore in the auction as they were looking to sign Chahal in the ceremony.

"Yuzi is one I will be frustrated with until I have finished my career and probably beyond. He is an outstanding bowler. I guess when it comes to every cycle, you have got to decide who you are going to retain. It was one of those things where if you only retain three players, you give yourself an extra 4 crore in the auction. That potentially gave us the chance to get both Harshal and Yuzi," he added.

After releasing Chahal, RCB spent huge money - INR 10.75 Cr on Sri Lanka all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga in the mega auction which forced them to not bid for their former spinner. However, after two seasons, they also let go of Hasaranga ahead of the 2024 edition.

The former New Zealand coach asserted that their plan to re-sign failed because his name came late in the auction and by that, they have already spent big money on Hasaranga.

"Then the order of the auction came up and Yuzvendra Chahal was at no. 65. Because we had retained that many players we were going to get bullied. After Yuzi there was no other spinner we were interested in. We were obviously interested in Hasaranga as another option if we did not get Yuzi. So we bid for him upfront and then once we hot Hasaranga that meant we could not go for Yuzi," the former RCB DoC added.

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