Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) recently shared a behind-the-scenes video of how the likes of team director Mike Hesson and others plotted the move for Faf Du Plessis at the recntly-concluded IPL 2022 player auction. RCB bought the Proteas batsmanfor a whopping Rs 7 crore beating Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in an intense bidding war.In the video shared by RCB on their social media platforms, Hesson can be seen in a meeting with other officials of the franchise as they practice a mock auction.
Revealing their pre-auction strategy for du Plessis Hesson said, “With the options we have in our current squad and the uncertainty surrounding those, and the options we have at the auction, where we think we can gain a real advantage is with Faf du Plessis who is highly experienced. He has captained South Africa for long, won the IPL many times and is a very consistent performer in terms of how he operates. He's a strong character and highly respected. These are a lot of attributes you want in a leader,” Hesson said. “It's pretty clear that CSK will likely try and get him back, as they do with all their players. He's also in the marquee group; for us to have some structure going forward, we need to allocate some budget to get that. We would want to go through teams who might look at him. CSK will obviously make a bid, no one will expect us in terms of who we are likely to go for,” he added.
While RCB went after him and were able to secure his services, the video further suggests that their main two targets on the first day were du Plessis and Sri Lanka all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga. While the Proteas batsman was seen as a leader, Hasaranga was their all-round option who could fill in that No. 7 spot. “We see his (Faf's) role along with Hasaranga as two most important overseas roles to get on the first day. There are a number of different permutations and combinations to get to this point and I'm sure there will continue to be some. But the primary role is to start and fine-tune how we have to go about achieving that. The priority on Day 1 is to get Hasaranga and Faf,” Hesson further added. This is the first time Faf du Plessis will not be playing under MS Dhoni in the IPL. He has been playing in the IPL since 2012. The right-hander scored 2721 runs in 92 games for CSK and 214 runs in 8 games for Rising Pune Supergiants.
