Mumbai: Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore strengthened their squad in the recently-concluded IPL Player Auctions when they bought the likes of Brendon McCullum, Quinton de Kock, Tim Southee among others.
While the Bengaluru franchise had already retained captain Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Sarfaraz Khan during the retention event earlier this month, they used the Right to Match card to retain Yuzvendra Chahal and Pawan Negi.
Some of the notable purchases they made were that of Chris Woakes, Umesh Yadav, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Colin de Grandhomme.
The speciality behind these signings are that these were the four bowlers who bowled RCB out for 49 runs in last year’s IPL, when they were playing for Kolkata Knight Riders.
In a match held at Eden Gardens in Kolkata last year, the hosts had finished their innings at 131, courtesy an innings of 34 by Sunil Narine, who had opened the innings.
In return, while Woakes, de Grandhomme and Coulter-Nile took three wickets for KKR, Umesh Yadav had taken one wicket to bowl RCB out for 49, thereby winning the match by 82 runs.
The Virat Kohli-led side had a forgettable season last time out, finishing at the last place, with just three wins.
The new season of the IPL will kick off on April 7, with the final on May 27.
