Mike Hesson arrives in Bengaluru as RCB look to add "finishing touches" to IPL 2022 Auction planning

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Director of Cricket Mike Hesson arrived in Bengaluru today. The franchise is reaching the final stages of planning for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 Mega Auction.

The auction is scheduled for February 12 and 13 in Bengaluru. RCB took to Twitter to share a picture of Hesson and wrote:

"Touchdown Bengaluru. The Professor, @CoachHesson has just arrived. Now time for the finishing touches to our #IPLMegaAuction planning!"

Responding to the tweet, the former New Zealand cricketer wrote:

"Long journey……can’t wait to continue our auction preparations. But first I need some (sleep emojis)."

Mike Hesson, Sanjay Bangar busy with auction preparation for RCB

Royal Challengers Bangalore have been busy preparing for the Mega Auction, which will take place over the course of two days (February 12-13).

Earlier today, the franchise shared a picture of Mike Hesson, head coach Sanjay Bangar, their head of scouting and fielding coach Malolan Rangarajan and the team's vice-president Rajesh V Menon. They were seen busy on a video call discussing the upcoming auction.

"The team is working hard preparing for the #IPLMegaAuction!" RCB captioned the picture.

Last week, Hesson himself shared an update on Instagram and wrote:

"Been a busy home office last couple of months preparing for #iplauction. Looking forward to joining our @royalchallengersbangalore team soon to complete our preparations in person."

RCB retained Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj ahead of the IPL 2022 auction. Kohli was retained for ₹15 crore and Maxwell for ₹11 crore. Pacer Siraj, meanwhile, has been retained for ₹7 crore.

The team now has a remaining purse of ₹57 crore for the auction and have a minimum of 15 with a maximum of 22 slots left to fill.

The IPL on Tuesday released the final player list for the auction. Initially 1214 players had registered, but after consulting with the 10 franchiss, the player pool was trimmed down to 590 names.