'They have Dinesh Karthik whose contract is to face last 8 balls': Vaughan launches scathing attack on RCB

Vaughan lashed out at RCB saying that their weak middle-order line-up was down to their poor auction strategy ahead of the 2022 season of the IPL

Earlier this week, when Chennai Super Kings had escaped with a narrow eight-run win at the Chinnaswamy against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, captain MS Dhoni had admitted that had Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell continued their onslaught for a while, RCB would have completed a win in 18 overs. And in a way, the CSK captain brought to notice the weak RCB middle-order line-up. They suffered against PBKS as well despite a win and again on Sunday at home when the team was restricted to 189 for nine despite fiery fifties from Maxwell and Du Plessis. Michael Vaughan, during RCB's match against Rajasthan Royals, pointed out the same in a scathing attack. (RCB vs RR Live Score, IPL 2023)

Michael Vaughan; Dinesh Karthik

After Kohli went for a shocking golden duck followed by Shahbaz Ahmed's dismissal in the third over, Du Plessis and Maxwell revived RCB with their record 127-run stand where the opener scored 62 off 39 while the latter added 77 off 44. However, after the onslaught at home venue, RCB's middle-order crumbled with the next four batters managing only 30 runs between themselves.

Speaking to Cricbuzz, Vaughan lashed out at RCB saying that their weak middle-order line-up was down to their poor auction strategy ahead of the 2022 season of the IPL, pointing to the fact that letting go of Yuzvendra Chahal was a bad call. They opined that they should have kept Chahal, saved the money by not getting Hasaranga and rather roped in a middle-order batter.

“When Yuzvendra Chahal went to Rajasthan, they didn’t get their auction planning right. Clearly, they are top heavy, they’ve got these three outstanding players at the top. Then they have got DK who comes in for the last eight balls, that’s his contract,” said Vaughan.

“They would have been better off keeping Yuzi Chahal, saving the money they spent on Hasaranga and buying a number 5 or number 6, a striker. The hardest place to bat in T20 cricket is 5, 6 and 7. There are a lot of players in world cricket that can bat at 1, 2 and 3 in T20s but not many successful ones at 5,6 and 7,” he added.

The former England captain then mentioned a couple of batters that RCB could have bought at the auction.

“RCB need someone like a Jitesh Sharma, someone who just goes out there and launches from ball 1, or Shimron Hetmyer or Nicholas Pooran. That style of player coming in at 5 or 6 is what RCB need. In terms of batting, that’s the purest batting line-up that you could come up with in T20 cricket,” said Vaughan.