'It's been a dream come true for me'- Anuj Rawat on being picked by the  Royal Challengers Bangalore

Delhi cricketer Anuj Rawat has said that it's a dream come true for him to play for such a big franchise like the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Rawat, 22, was picked by the Faf du Plessis-led RCB for a sum of Rs 3.40 crore following an intense bidding war with the SunRisers Hyderabad and the Gujarat Titans.

Rawat had set his base price at Rs 20 lakh, and while he was expecting some takers at the mega auction, the southpaw hadn't expected to fetch such a big amount.

In a video posted by RCB's YouTube handle, the 22-year-old opened up about his feelings on being a part of such a star-studded franchise.

He said:

"Playing for such a big franchise, it's been a dream come true for me. This is one of the franchises I've been looking forward to playing for since I started playing cricket and watching the IPL. It feels great to be a part of Royal Challengers Bangalore and I'm very happy to be here."

He continued:

"I was expecting me to be picked by some of the franchise but I wasn't expecting this much of amount."

Watch the video here:

Meanwhile, RCB's chief scout, Malolan Rangarajan, reckoned that Rawat's versatile skillset was the major reason behind him getting a hefty paycheck from the franchise.

He said:

"At the end of the day, all the guys we have here are professionals and it's important for the cricketers to understand that the price isn't necessarily a price tag associated with the type or the quality of the cricketer that they are. It has a lot to do with the dynamics of the auction."

He continued:

"He knows he needs to prepare. There's a week left for the tournament to kick off. The fact that you know he can fulfill multiple roles for RCB and that's one of the reasons why we think he did get the paycheck that he has."

Rawat has previously represented the Rajasthan Royals in the cash-rich league. He didn't play a single game in the 2020 season and only played twice last year.

Check out the updated IPL point table here.

'Let's hope for the best and let's enjoy the journey' - Anuj Rawat

Rawat further revealed that RCB had been scouting him for a couple of years, and following his exploits in the recent Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, the franchise owners had asked him to share his batting and keeping videos.

"They have been watching me for a couple of years before and after the T20 tournament (SMAT), RCB had asked me about my batting and keeping videos and now they've picked me and I'm so happy to be a part of it." revealed Rawat.

He also touched upon his first training session with RCB following the culmination of mandatory quarantine.

"Coming out of three-day hard quarantine, I wanted to be everywhere in the field and yes the session went pretty well as planned. I had some wicket-keeping drills, building session and dieting and it went really well." he said.

The southpaw is looking forward to sharing the dressing room with superstars like Virat Kohli and Faf Du Plessis and learning from them.

He added:

"There are many players I've played with before like Shahbaz. I've played with him before and many of them. So, yeah, they are such big players and I wanted to learn from them, wanted to play along with them. Let's hope for the best and let's enjoy the journey."

Rawat had a brilliant SMAT campaign for Delhi earlier this year. In five innings, he scored 167 runs at an average of 33.40 and a strike rate of 128.46 with one half-century.

He will be looking to put his best foot forward in the upcoming season.