"If you have given more money to someone, it doesn't mean you have to play him" - RP Singh wants RCB to play Lockie Ferguson ahead of Alzarri Joseph

RP Singh wants the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to play Lockie Ferguson ahead of Alzarri Joseph even though the latter was acquired at a much higher price at the IPL 2024 auction in Dubai on Tuesday.

The Bengaluru-based franchise spent ₹20.40 crore to acquire six players at the auction. While Joseph was their first purchase for a whopping ₹11.50 crore, Ferguson was bought at his base price of ₹2 crore as their final overseas player.

During a discussion on JioCinema, RP Singh was asked about his thoughts on Suresh Raina choosing Faf du Plessis, Cameron Green, Glenn Maxwell and Joseph as the four overseas players in his first-choice RCB playing XI, to which he responded:

"I will make one change. I will want to keep Lockie Ferguson instead of Alzarri Joseph. I feel he can have a bigger impact. If you have given more money to someone, it doesn't mean you have to play him, or that you need to build your team around him."

The cricketer-turned-commentator was surprised by his former franchise's tactics of not bidding for Ferguson in the initial rounds and instead going hammer and tongs to acquire Joseph. He said:

"RCB surprised me a little. The most surprising thing was they left Lockie Ferguson and went a long way for Alzarri Joseph, who was the next player after him. Then they also included Yash Dayal in their team. They also took Tom Curran later."

Apart from Joseph and Ferguson, RCB also have Reece Topley and Tom Curran as part of their overseas seam-bowling contingent. They could even prefer to go with Topley ahead of Joseph and Ferguson because of his ability to swing the new ball and the left-arm angle he provides.

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"If you play at the RCB ground, you have to be extremely skillful as a fast bowler" - RP Singh

Harshal Patel (left) was one of the bowlers released by RCB ahead of the auction. [P/C: iplt20.com]

RP Singh pointed out that a seamer should either be able to nail yorkers or possess some deception like Harshal Patel to succeed at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. He elaborated:

"If you play at the RCB ground, you have to be extremely skillful as a fast bowler. If you cannot bowl 50% yorkers in an over, it's very difficult on that ground, or else you should have a weapon that Harshal Patel had, a dipping slower one which was useful for a long time."

The former India pacer feels the Royal Challengers Bangalore have shortcomings in the bowling department despite Lockie Ferguson's acquisition towards the end of the auction. He stated:

"Death bowling has always been a problem for them. They tried to sort that out in this auction and that is why they picked Lockie Ferguson when his name came again. However, I still feel the bowling department is not good."

RP Singh pointed out that the three-time finalists have only two prominent spinners in Karn Sharma and Mayank Dagar. While acknowledging that individual brilliance can win T20 games, he opined that Faf du Plessis and company might find it difficult in IPL 2024 as they didn't have a good auction.