IPL 2021 Purple Cap winner Harshal Patel was a popular choice among franchises in this year’s mega auction and bidding for him was frantic with various teams getting involved. In the end, Royal Challengers Bangalore managed to bring him back but had to pay a whopping INR 10.75 crore to secure his services.
Chennai Super Kings began the bidding war for him with Royal Challengers Bangalore but the defending champions backed out at INR 4.4 crore. However, RCB didn’t find easy respite as Sunrisers Hyderabad entered the fray. The bidding went neck-to-neck for a long while before RCB bested interest from other teams to bring Harshal Patel back to Bangalore for 10.75 crore.
Following the deal, last season’s Purple Cap winner explained the logic behind RCB’s decision to let him go before the main auction and what the official communication was from their end.
“They basically told me that if we retain you, we’ll have to pay you 6 crore and 9 crores will be deducted out of our purse because you will be the fourth player. So we don’t want to do that and we’d rather that you earn that money in the auction and we’ll try our best to get you back. So that was the only communication,” Harshal said on Cricket Live on Day 2 of the action in the IPL mega auction.
Harshal Patel has had a long and hard IPL career since being picked by Mumbai Indians in 2010, but it was only in 2021 where he started to showcase his worth. After being traded back to RCB from Delhi Capitals, Harshal established himself as the leading death bowler for the franchise along with Mohammed Siraj. He picked up wickets frequently, especially in the final few overs and won the Purple Cap with 32 wickets to his kitty in IPL 2021!
“When they traded me back from Delhi, they gave me an opportunity and responsibility that I was not expecting to fulfill. They backed me, saw something in me and that means a lot. The price tag is obviously huge but at the same time, the amount of faith they’ve shown in me means a lot,” said Harshal on being reunited with many of his teammates at Royal Challengers Bangalore.
