Former Indian left-arm pacer and 2007 T20 World Cup winner RP Singh surprised everyone when he said that Royal Challengers Bangalore should back New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson to start ahead of Alzarri’s Rs 11 crore buyout Joseph at RCB playing 11 for IPL 2024. The South Indian team opted for the West Indies pacer who spent the last 2 seasons playing for the Gujarat Titans.
Joseph made his IPL debut in 2019 for Mumbai Indians where he took 6 wickets in 3 matches. He would miss the next 2 seasons before Gujarat Titans acquired him during the IPL 2022 auction for 2 crores from a base price of 75 lakhs. But given the talent and confidence that the Gujarat Titans had in him, Alzarri was more or less disappointed with his performances during the 2 seasons.
In his 2 seasons, he could only get 14 wickets combined, 7 in each season. And perhaps that is the reason why the Gujarat Titans had to let him go. This year when he was up for auction, RCB went all out for him and bought him for Rs 11 crore just after losing the battle to get Pat Cummins who went to Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs 20 crore.
After that, RCB bought Yash Dayal for Rs 5 crore and Tom Curran for Rs 1.5 crore before welcoming New Zealand pacer Lockie Ferguson to the team for his base price of Rs 2 crore before concluding their auction. with Swapnil Singh and Saurav Chauhan. The bowling department has always been a big concern for RCB but they will be satisfied with their purchases for the next edition which will begin in March.
But now the main question is who will spearhead RCB’s bowling attack along with Indian national team pacer Mohammad Siraj? The way RCB approached the signing of Alzarri Joseph, you might expect the West Indies to start, but against him is a Kiwi pacer who has been playing in the IPL since 2017. While both can bowl regularly at 140+, it will be interesing. to see who RCB will back, their record signing or the base price signing.
RP Singh approves of Lockie Ferguson having a greater impact than Alzarri Joseph
While analyzing the RCB team at Jio Cinema, RP Singh realized that 32-year-old Lockie Ferguson would be a better option to start compared to Alzarri Joseph. He also expressed his confusion over RCB opting for the Kiwi International despite betting big on Joseph early in the auction.
He also highlighted the fact that Joseph, despite being an expensive purchase, cannot or should not be a guaranteed starter for RCB playing as an 11. “I will make a change. I’ll want to keep Lockie Ferguson instead of Alzarri Joseph. I feel like it can have a bigger impact. If you’ve given someone more money, it doesn’t mean you have to play with them or that you have to build your team around them.
“RCB surprised me a little bit. The most surprising thing was that they left Lockie Ferguson and made a long move 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.”
Another reason why Alzarri Joseph might not start before Lockie Ferguson is that the former was originally bought because his name appeared in the auction before Mitchell Starc. Therefore, it means that Joseph was not his priority and he was brought in because RCB did not want to take any risk of losing him while waiting for their top target to emerge.
RCB full squad for IPL 2024: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vijaykumar Vyshak , Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.