"Would Pat Cummins have bowled from both ends?" - Aakash Chopra on RCB going after Aussie seamer in IPL 2024 auction

Aakash Chopra believes the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were lucky that they couldn't purchase Pat Cummins for a massive sum in the IPL 2024 auction.

The Bangalore-based franchise was involved in a bidding war with the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) to acquire Cummins' services. SRH eventually bought the Australian Test and ODI skipper for a whopping ₹20.50 crore.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra questioned the Royal Challengers Bangalore for being ready to spend a fortune to buy Cummins. He elaborated (0:01):

"They 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?"

The former India opener feels RCB would have been considerably weakened had they acquired Cummins. He said:

"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."

Chopra added that RCB should thank SRH for outbidding them to buy Cummins. He stated:

"So 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."

RCB did not show any interest in Gerald Coetzee and Mitchell Starc. While the South African right-arm pacer was bought by the Mumbai Indians for just ₹5 crore, the Australian left-arm seamer was acquired by the Kolkata Knight Riders for an IPL record bid of ₹24.75 crore.

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"Harshal told us he was thinking that maybe they would show a little more faith" - Aakash Chopra on RCB not retaining Harshal Patel

RCB released Harshal Patel (left) ahead of the IPL 2024 auction. [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra disclosed that Harshal Patel was slightly disappointed about not being retained or reacquired by the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He said (0:45):

"RCB released Triple H (Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood and Harshal Patel). Harshal was with us on JioCinema. Harshal told us he was thinking that maybe they would show a little more faith as he didn't have one good season but had two very good seasons before that. However, they didn't."

Chopra added that the three-time finalists' decision not to retain or reacquire Harshal wasn't communicated to him either. They didn't bid for the right-arm seamer, who was acquired by the Punjab Kings for ₹11.75 crore.