After a terrible season with the ball in IPL 2023, Royal Challengers Bangalore released Harshal Patel ahead of the upcoming season. Punjab King spent INR 11.75 crore in the auction to buy the pacer and following this, there has been a lot of discussion on whether the cricketer is being overpaid after a poor season. Speaking about the same, former South Africa skipper AB de Villiers opined that Harshal is a terrific T20 cricketer and hence argued that he is not being overpaid.
The 39-year-old believes that Harshal will succeed in Mohali and Dharamsala, where the conditions are much better than that of Bengaluru. He also pointed out that Harhsal is brilliant with his slower balls and has deadly bouncers in his ranks.
“Harshal going for a pretty nifty ₹11.75 crore. I don’t think that’s being overpaid. He’s a fantastic player. He is a wonderful T20 cricketer. He can also hit the cricket ball. The slower ball that he bowls bamboozles a lot of batters,” De Villiers said on his YouTube channel
“Absolutely. He’s a success on all wickets. He’s got an X-factor slower ball that flies above almost eye level and dips below very quickly. Almost like a Dwayne Bravo had back in the day. He’s also got a very fast bouncer and he’s not shy to use it,” he added.
Punjab Kings added eight new players in the auction
Meanwhile, Punjab have also added Chris Woakes (INR 4.20 crore) and Rilee Rossouw (INR 8 crore) alongside five uncapped players. There was a lot of controversy regarding Shashank Singh as the franchise was in a dilemma regarding his name after the hammer went down. They tried to clear the situation during the auction, but nothing materialized.
However, they took it to X and clarified that the confusion emerged as two players had the same name but were happy to sign the player in the end. Shashank too opened up about the incident and stated that he is ready to join the team.
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