The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) is performing brilliantly in IPL 2023, winning 4 out of their 7 games. However, that has been possible only because of RCB’s top order, while its middle order continued to struggle. RCB’s middle order consisting of Mahipal Lomror, Shahbaz Ahmed, and Dinesh Karthik failed miserably.
Speaking to Cricbuzz, Vaughan lashed out at RCB saying that their weak middle-order line-up was down to their poor auction strategy ahead of the 2022 season of the IPL, pointing to the fact that letting go of Yuzvendra Chahal was a bad call. They opined that they should have kept Chahal, saved the money by not getting Hasaranga and rather roped in a middle-order batter.
“When Yuzvendra Chahal went to Rajasthan, they didn’t get their auction planning right. Clearly, they are top heavy, they’ve got these three outstanding players at the top. Then they have got DK who comes in for the last eight balls, that’s his contract,” said Vaughan.
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“They would have been better off keeping Yuzi Chahal, saving the money they spent on Hasaranga and buying a number 5 or number 6, a striker. The hardest place to bat in T20 cricket is 5, 6 and 7. There are a lot of players in world cricket that can bat at 1, 2 and 3 in T20s but not many successful ones at 5,6 and 7,” he added.
Vaughan also mentioned a couple of batters that RCB could have bought at the auction.
“RCB need someone like Jitesh Sharma, someone who just goes out there and launches from ball 1, or Shimron Hetmyer or Nicholas Pooran. That style of player coming in at 5 or 6 is what RCB need. In terms of batting, that’s the purest batting line-up that you could come up with in T20 cricket,” said Vaughan.