'Using the money we didn’t spend on Yuzi...'- RCB director reveals their thoughts during IPL 2025 mega auction

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) director Mo Bobat revealed an interesting fact about their bidding strategy for the IPL 2025 mega auction. RCB went too far to acquire the service of Venkatesh Iyer, but it was Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) who finally won the war of price. Iyer sold to KKR for a staggering INR 23.75 crores.

RCB raised their paddle for up to INR 23.50. The Indian all-rounder got massive success in the previous season's IPL but proved to be one of the biggest flops in the 2025 Indian Premier League. Now, Bobat clearly discussed why they were chasing KKR to get Iyer in their squad. He said that they could get Iyer's service for 14 to 15 crores maximum. But when the bidding war was ignited, the situation was beyond their expectations. Still, they were not worried about the unexpected high price, because they tried to use the money they did not use for Yuzvendra Chahal. 

"Our original budget was something like 14 or 15 for him, as probably a maximum number, hoping we'd get him for less than that. And then, obviously, the bidding gets a little bit out of control. When we were bidding, we were thinking we still weren't compromising the rest of our squad, because we're just using the money we didn't spend on Yuzi. And then we did get closer to a point where we weren't just spending the Venky Iyer budget and the money we didn't spend on Yuzi," RCB director Mo Bobat said. 

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They talked with Iyer before

"Venky was someone we were really interested in. Andy and I and DK met him before the auction. He's a player that we like in terms of his skills. He's a character that I really respect. I think he would have been another one of those really senior, leaderful kind of characters that we recruited. So, we were really keen on him."

Notably, Chahal went to Punjab Kings (PBKS) for INR 18 crores in the IPL 2025 auction. The experienced spinner was with RCB from 2014 to 2021, 8 long years.