New Delhi: Indian fast bowler Mohammed Siraj was with Royal Challengers Bangalore from 2018 to 2024, and throughout his seven years with the franchise, he claimed 83 wickets in 87 matches. The 31-year-old cricketer from Hyderabad, who played a pivotal role in India’s T20 World Cup 2024 victory, was not retained by the three-time IPL runners-up ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. Many had expected RCB to use one of their three Right to Match (RTM) options for Siraj, but during the two-day mega auction held in Jeddah on November 24 and 25, RCB chose not to exercise the RTM, allowing Siraj to join Gujarat Titans for Rs 12.25 crore.
In a recent interview with ESPNCricinfo, RCB’s Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, shed light on the reasoning behind the move. According to Bobat, RCB prioritized securing Bhuvneshwar Kumar during the mega auction, which led the team management to make the difficult choice of letting go of Siraj.
“It’s important to acknowledge the significant contributions Siraj has made to RCB over the years. He’s been an exceptional player for us, and not retaining him was one of our toughest decisions, if not the toughest. We had Bhuvneshwar Kumar high on our priority list and wanted to give ourselves the best chance of securing him. Unfortunately, the way the auction played out, with Bhuvi being available later in the process, it became a bit like a game of poker—holding your nerve and deciding whether you can wait for a player. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. In the end, we couldn’t secure Siraj due to our priorities, auction sequence, and spending pattern. The same was true for a couple of other players; Faf du Plessis and Will Jacks were also players we were considering for the Right to Match (RTM) if things unfolded a certain way,” Bobat explained.
“I’m incredibly fond of Will, and he was exceptional last year when he joined the team. He was definitely someone we were considering for the Right to Match (RTM), but when a player comes up that late in the auction without a clear role, it becomes a risk. Given the auction’s spending dynamics, and the fact that we missed out on a few of our targets, we ended up with more money than we expected, which forced us to make some tough decisions. Unfortunately, Faf, Jacks, and Siraj were all players we had in mind for RTM, but it just didn’t work out that way. As a result, we had to build our team a little differently, which is unfortunate,” he added.
Jacks, who scored a century in the IPL 2024 match for RCB against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad, was signed for Rs 5.25 crore by Mumbai Indians in the mega auction, whereas Du Plessis joined Delhi Capitals for Rs 2 crore.
