The cricket-turned-commentator Aakash Chopra thinks that the Royal Challengers Bangalore might have dodged a bullet when they missed out on signing Australia’s World Cup 2023 winning captain Pat Cummins during the 2024 IPL Auction in Dubai on 19th December.
RCB were engaged in a tense bidding war with Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings, and Mumbai Indians for the 30-year-old pacer. The franchises looked pretty determined to grab hold of Cummins who has previously represented teams like Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders.
CSK and MI withdrew their interest after anticipating that it would take a lot of money to sign Pat Cummins. In the end, it was RCB and SRH who were in that tug-of-war with the 2016 Champions’ final bid of 20.50 Crores proved to be the bid that forced Bangalore to quit the pursuit as they only had 23 Crores remaining in their purse.
They instead went on to buy Alzarri Joseph for an unbelievable 11 Crores and also splashed 5 Crores on Yash Dayal. While many believe that losing Cummins was not a good thing to happen, Aakash Chopra thinks that it was a blessing in disguise.
In a video uploaded on his YouTube channel, Chopra made a funny remark by saying that he was wishing for RCB to back out from the deal as Pat Cummins couldn’t have bowled from both ends had he been sold for that price to the 2009, and 2011 and 2016 Finalists.
“They (RCB) had totally made up their mind that they wanted Pat Cummins at any cost and they kept going after him, kept lifting the paddle. It went till 20 crores and I folded my hands and said – ‘think a little’. If you had got Pat Cummins for 20 crores and you had 23.25 crores, would Pat Cummins have bowled from both ends?” Aakash Chopra said.
“Pat Cummins Would Have Made Them Weaker”, Aakash Chopra Gives His Honest Opinion
Furthermore, Aakash Chopra claimed that even if RCB had successfully bought Pat Cummins, it would have made their side even more weak than it is right now. He reasoned the fact that Cummins would have gone for plenty in a batting-friendly flat track Bangalore’s M. Chinnaswamy stadium and asked RCB to send Christmas and New Year wishes to SRH for saving them.
“If they had bought Pat Cummins, if SRH had pulled out at that stage, and they would have got him for 20 crores, their team would have become extremely weak. When you released so many players and if you had picked Pat Cummins on a small Chinnaswamy ground with a flat pitch, you would have been hit a lot.”
The 40-year-old Indian pundit also expressed his confusion regarding RCB’s decision to not even try for either of Gerald Coetzee and Mitchell Starc who were bought by Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively.
“Send Merry Christmas and Happy New Year cards to Hyderabad because they saved you. They just went all out and you got saved. It was very interesting that they wanted Pat Cummins but didn’t bid for Gerald Coetzee and Mitchell Starc.” – Chopra concluded.
Meanwhile, RCB are indeed receiving a lot of backlash on social media for their picks during the IPL 2024 auction and it will be interesting to see the combination they use when the Indian Premier League returns next year.