"He said I was overpaid" - Former opener makes massive AB de Villiers revelation amid RCB's IPL 2025 triumph

Former Indian batter Abhinav Mukund revealed Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) legend AB de Villiers's confession about being overpaid during his career after the franchise's IPL 2025 title run. RCB finally broke their long-standing title drought by defeating Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the final at Ahmedabad on Tuesday, June 3.

De Villiers is one of IPL's all-time greats with 5,162 runs at an average of 39.70 and a strike rate of 151.68 in 184 matches. Yet, despite his incredible batting feats, RCB could never breakthrough in his 11 years with the franchise from 2011 to 2021.

Talking about the champions' shrewd auction buys ahead of the 2025 IPL season, Mukund told the host broadcasters (via Hindustan Times):

"I was sitting next to AB de Villiers and he told me something that I don't think any legend in the IPL has said. But he genuinely meant it, he said it from a place of emotion. He said I was overpaid. I'm overpaid, I thought I was overpaid because I feel like all of the other elements that you're talking about, right?"

He added:

"Where you're able to buy so many other superstar players, all those match winners you're talking about. The highest amount of money that they spent on was for someone like a Phil Salt or Josh Hazlewood. They didn't cross 15."

RCB retained only three players ahead of the IPL 2025 auction and did not cross the ₹12.50 crore mark (Josh Hazlewood) for any player at the auction.

"They must be thinking, thank God we didn't go all the way from Venkatesh Iyer" - Abhinav Mukund

Abhinav Mukund believes RCB must be relieved at not acquiring Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Venkatesh Iyer at the IPL 2025 auction. The 2025 champions went hard at the southpaw before eventually stopping the bidding as KKR completed the acquisition at a whopping ₹23.75 crores.

Iyer endured a season to forget, scoring only 142 runs in 11 games at an average of 20.28 and a strike rate of under 140.

"In hindsight, they must be thinking, thank God we didn't go all the way from Venkatesh Iyer. Because their last losing bid was Venkatesh Iyer. And the next three buys were Josh Hazlewood, Jitesh Sharma and I think Phil Salt. Those were the next three buys. And they saved so much in the bank for day two when Bhuvneshwar Kumar came in. So, it was a very clear plan that they wanted to buy all of these players," said Mukund (via aforementioned source).

RCB acquired Hazlewood and Phil Salt, who played key roles in their title run this season, for a combined ₹24 crores.