Gautam Gambhir, former IPL winning skipper of Kolkata Knight Riders believes Glenn Maxwell will be one of the costliest buys despite his indifferent returns in the IPL so far and RCB will look to get the Australian all-rounder in IPL 2021 mini-auction.
Glenn Maxwell has listed his base price at INR 2 crore for the IPL 2021 auction after being released by Kings XI Punjab as he failed to live up to expectations scoring only 108 runs at a strike-rate of 101.88 from 13 matches in the previous edition at a pathetic average of 15.42.
Gautam Gambhir: RCB Will Be Looking For Players Like Glenn Maxwell
Gautam Gambhir while speaking to Star Sports pointed out that teams like KXIP and RCB will be looking for a proper balance in their squad. Gautam Gambhir reckoned that KXIP and RCB need some players to balance the team as the franchises have released lots of cricketers.
“There will be a couple of teams who will be eager to go into the auctions and buy the players they want. There is Kings XI Punjab, there is RCB, who will be looking to get some players to get their balance right. These sides will be very, very active in the auctions,” Gautam Gambhir said on Star Sports during the Lunch break on Day 1 of the 2nd Test between India and England.
“There are teams who will be looking at someone like Maxwell. Surely, RCB will be looking at him. That is my personal opinion. Anything can happen at the auctions. But I feel Maxwell will go to RCB,” Gambhir added.
Kings XI Punjab released as many as nine players ahead of the upcoming auction. Glenn Maxwell, Sheldon Cottrell, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Krishnappa Gowtham, and Karun Nair were some of the cricketers they decided against retaining. Like Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kings XI Punjab has never won IPL, but the franchise were semi-finalists in 2008 and were runners up in 2014.
They now have a staggering Rs 53.2 crore to spend at the mini-auction and build a team that can challenge for the title this year.
Gautam Gambhir: Glenn Maxwell Has Done Very Well In Bengaluru
RCB has retained just 12 squad members before the IPL 2021 auction and released 10 players which include recently-retired Parthiv Patel and Dale Steyn, who opted out of the upcoming edition of the cash-rich league. RCB released Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Aaron Finch, Chris Morris, Pavan Negi, Parthiv Patel (retired), Dale Steyn (unavailable), Isuru Udana, Umesh Yadav from their IPL 2020 squad before IPL 2021.
“Because if I look at their entire batting line-up they have got, Virat Kohli will definitely be looking to open the batting, because that is where he has been most successful. Padikkal has done very, very well for them in the previous season. Then they have got AB, and then they can have someone like Maxwell – the X factor,” he explained.
“And at Chinnaswamy, where he has done very well. Whenever he has played at Chinnaswamy, he has won games for Australia. So, I think, Maxwell will go to RCB. Depending on how much RCB will give for him, but I feel he would go for a lot of money,” Gautam Gambhir concluded.
A brilliant fielder, who can contribute with his off-spin, the Australian Glenn Maxwell can play the role of a floater in a line-up. His one of the best seasons was in 2014 in UAE when he teamed up with David Miller for Kings XI Punjab in clobbering the opposition but apart from that and except 2014 and 2017, his average in IPL has been below 20 in all the other seasons.