The Royal Challengers Bangalore team management have explained why they did not retain Josh Hazlewood for the IPL 2024 auction.
November 26, 2023 Ahead of the IPL 2024 auction to be held on December 19, all 10 IPL franchises have announced the list of retained and released cricketers. p>
Royal Challengers Bangalore released a total of 11 cricketers. Among them was Josh Hazlewood, who won the ODI World Cup with Australia a week before the announcement.
With 11 wickets and an economy rate of 8.37, Hazlewood played a key role in Chennai Super Kings’ trophy win in 2021. However, when Chennai released him ahead of the 2022 mega auction, the Bangalore franchise acquired him for Rs 7.75 crore.
In the next two seasons, Hazlewood took 23 wickets at 19.69 and reached an over of 8.16, but played just three games in 2023, missing the first half with an Achilles injury .
At the World Cup, although the format was different, his 16 wickets were the most of any Australian fast bowler at 28.06 wickets each, maintaining an economy of 4.81. Once considered a Test specialist, Hazlewood gained a reputation as a fearsome cross-format bowler.
That’s why it came as a surprise when Bangalore announced the release of the in-form fast bowler.
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Shortly after the names of the sacked cricketers were announced, Royal Challengers Bangalore uploaded a video to X (formerly Twitter) in which head coach Andy Flower and director of cricket Mo Bobat explained the decision Did.
“Josh Hazlewood…very fortunately, he has a baby on the way and is due in March,” Flowers said shortly after speaking with Hazlewood over the phone. “So Josh isn’t with us, especially not for the first half of the season.”
Other releases for Royal Challengers Bangalore include Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, David Willey, Wayne Parnell, Sonu Yadav, Avinash Singh, Siddharth Kaur and Kedar Jadhav. They also traded Shahbaz Ahmed to Sunrisers Hyderabad in exchange for Mayank Dagar.
The transfer window is open until December 12th.
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