RCB Juggernaut Sum Of All Things

From power-hitter Salt as perfect foil for stabiliser Kohli to coach Flower & Krunal's influence, Bengaluru have shone in many areas

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN @ Chennai

FOR the first three or so hours in Jeddah, the people at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru table kept rising their paddles. Unsuccessfully.

They started the mega auction by bidding for Kagiso Rabada but Gujarat Titans went higher and bagged the South African pacer.

There were similar stories elsewhere. Mitchell Starc, Rishabh Pant, Yuzvendra Chahal, KL Rahul, David Miller, R Ashwin and Marcus Stoinis came and went. At the RCB table, fronted by Mo Bobat and Dinesh Karthik, they had clearly identified some of these players as part of their first XI plans but they weren't prepared to push the envelope. They had a set figure for all of these players and once that number was hit, the franchise pulled out.

In theory, most of these players would have walked into their first XI. But they came armed with elaborate plans and processes, a marked difference from some of the other auctions. Those plans included some must-have buys. One of those players at the top of that particular wish-list was Phil Salt.