‘He’s probably the player that we spent the longest deliberating over…’: RCB director of cricket Mo Bobat opens about not choosing RTM option for Mohammed Siraj

With Mohammed Siraj playing 87 matches for Royal Challengers Bengaluru prior to last year’s IPL mega auction and being the leading pacer in RCB’s dugout, it was expected that the team will use the Right to Match (RTM) option for the Indian pacer in the mega auction in Saudi Arabia last year. Instead, Siraj was bought by Gujarat Titans for Rs 12.5 crore and the Hyderabad native played the IPL this year for the Gujarat side taking 16 wickets in 15 matches. RCB director of cricket Mo Bobat has now revealed why the team did not go for Siraj in last year’s mega-auction and how the team spent the longest time deliberating about Siraj in the auction.

“Similar with Siraj, another person I really admire and respect and it’s been brilliant seeing him do well in the Test series here (in England) and he had a pretty decent season in the IPL too. He’s probably the player that we spent the longest deliberating over. Indian international bowlers aren’t that easy to get. We spent a lot of time weighing up whether we wanted to retain him, release him, would we consider trying to go back for him at the auction, is he a Right To Match? We discussed every eventuality with him. But both were tricky decisions, and for various reasons, we obviously decided to move on from those guys and try something different,” Bobat told Cribuzz in an interview.

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