Ranking the 3 teams who had the worst IPL 2024 auction ft. RCB

The IPL 2024 auction, held in Dubai on December 19, saw a lot of players getting sold for high sums of money. Players like Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Daryl Mitchell earned the most among foreigners, while Harshal Patel and Shahrukh Khan are the Indians who fetched the highest bids.

The IPL is not merely won on paper, as we have seen in the past with the Gujarat Titans lifting the trophy in 2022, when many wrote them off after the auction. However, more often than not, teams that perform well on the auction table also go on to have spectacular campaigns in the IPL.

On that note, let's look at three teams who had the worst IPL 2024 auction.

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#3 Delhi Capitals (DC)

Delhi Capitals entered the auction with a budget of ₹28.95 crore, which was a substantial amount. However, they ended up spending only two-third of that, leaving around ₹9.9 crore in the purse, which could have been used to improve their squad.

Their main targets should have been an Indian wicketkeeper (as Rishabh Pant is unlikely to keep wickets in IPL 2024), an Indian middle order batter who can finish well and an overseas middle order batter. They only got two of the three slots.

Harry Brook at ₹4 crore is a decent buy, but it pushes Rishabh Pant down the batting order. Kumar Kushagra, who is likely to keep wickets after signing for ₹7.2 crore, is inexperienced when it comes to batting at a high level. They also released Phil Salt and got Shai Hope and Tristan Stubbs instead, despite Salt's good form.

With the amount of budget they had left in the end, they could have easily made Shahrukh Khan a priority buy. The explosive middle-order batter would have solved their No. 6 issues. He was snapped up by the Gujarat Titans instead for ₹7.4 crore, and DC were left stranded with almost ₹10 crore left in their purse.

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#2 Punjab Kings

It was a tale of two halves for the Punjab Kings in the IPL 2024 auction. The Punjab-based franchise had just shy of ₹30 crore at the start of the auction. They had to prioritize an Indian fast bowling all-rounder, a backup overseas batter and an Indian middle-order batter.

They bought Harshal Patel for ₹11.75 crore, making him the highest-earning Indian player in the IPL 2024 auction. While Harshal was a good buy, considering his ability to take wickets in the death overs and the fact that he can hit the long ball, Shardul Thakur was snapped up for just ₹4 crore by Chennai Super Kings.

However, that wasn't why PBKS feature in this list. They released Shahrukh Khan in the hope of buying him back at a cheaper price, but they came in second-best in the bidding war for him against Gujarat Titans. That leaves a significant hole in the lower middle order.

Moreover, they splurged ₹8 crore on Rilee Rossouw, after he initially went unsold, and they bought Chris Woakes for ₹4.2 crore as a backup auction. They should have gone all out for Shahrukh Khan instead, as their Indian batting options apart from Shikhar Dhawan and Jitesh Sharma are not up to the mark.

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#1 Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore had already dented their chances of building a good squad for IPL 2024 after significantly reducing their remaining purse by trading in Cameron Green for ₹17.5 crore. While he's a good player, it prevented RCB from going for the likes of Mitchell Starc or Pat Cummins in the IPL 2024 auction.

RCB's batting looks strong, as it always does, but their bowling unit is much worse than what it was in the last couple of years. They released Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood and Harshal Patel. Hasaranga (₹1.50 crore to SRH) and Hazlewood (unsold) could have been bought back at a cheap price.

RCB acquired the services of Alzarri Joseph for a whopping ₹11.50 crore, which was around half their budget, but they didn't go after players like Gerald Coetzee and Dilshan Madushanka, who were purchased for much lower amounts by MI. Yash Dayal was also bought by RCB for ₹5 crore despite having a history of leaking runs at the death.

Overall, RCB's new pace attack doesn't look anywhere near as good as the trio of Mohammad Siraj, Hazlewood and Harshal. Moreover, they don't have a quality spinner, with Karn Sharma and Mayank Dagar as the two best options. RCB easily had the worst IPL 2024 auction among all ten franchises.