KL Rahul wasn’t on RCB wish list for IPL 2025? Team releases list of “target players” for auction

At the recently concluded IPL 2025 Auction, RCB didn’t compile a squad that would threaten all the other squads, but a one that would just about do the job for them. There were many questions raised, as to why they didn’t go for big players — KL Rahul and Mohammed Siraj in particular..but they more that made up for those losses with the inclusions of Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, and even Josh Hazlewood.

Despite the severe criticism, the team came up with a video on social media, where they discussed the Auction and players for IPL 2025. To be precise, the RCB think tank, including Dinesh Karthik, had the blueprint ready, as to how would RCB XI look like in IPL 2025.

For starters, they retained Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar and Yash Dayal, who automatically make it to their XI. The post showed a foreign opener along with Virat, which in all probability would be ex-KKR man Salt. The post also showed Venkatesh Iyer, but that did not happen. So now it would most likely be Jacob Bethell there. Then at no.5 they kept four options in — David Miller, Liam Livingstone, Tim David, Donovan Ferreira, and Rovman Powell.

Surprisingly, Bangalore boy KL Rahul wasn’t on their wishlist, but Jitesh Sharma was, and they got him. Going further down the order, they had a requirement of an Indian batter at no. 7, that could be fulfilled by Krunal Pandya now. No. 8 had the options of Kagiso Rabada, Mitchell Starc, Hazlewood, Nathan Ellis and Nuwan Thusara, with Hazlewood making the cut.

At no. 9, the choice was between T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Rashikh Salam, along with another pacer. They managed to the duo of Rasikh and Bhuvi. While the no.10 was blurred, Yuzvendra Chahal made the cut as an impact sub.

RCB IPL 2025 Squad: Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Yash Dayal, Liam Livingstone (Rs. 8.75 crore), Phil Salt (Rs. 11.50 crore), Jitesh Sharma (Rs. 11 crore), Josh Hazlewood (Rs. 12.50 crore), Rasikh Dar (Rs. 6 crore), Suyash Sharma (Rs. 2.60 crore), Krunal Pandya (Rs. 5.75 crore), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Rs. 10.75 crore), Swapnil Singh (Rs. 50 lakh), Tim David (Rs. 3 crore), Romario Shepherd (Rs. 1.50 crore), Nuwan Thushara (Rs. 1.60 crore), Manoj Bhandage (Rs. 30 lakh), Jacob Bethell (Rs. 2.60 crore), Devdutt Padikkal (Rs. 2 crore), Swastik Chhikara (Rs. 30 lakh), Lungi Ngidi (Rs. 1 crore), Abhinandan Singh (Rs. 30 lakh), Mohit Rathee (Rs. 30 lakh).