Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara has admitted the limitation of a shoestring budget and how they were ‘caught in the middle’ at the IPL mini auction held in Kochi.
“Our main target in the first round was Brook, but unfortunately we missed it. But we are very happy to have Jason Holder and Donovan Ferreira among a host of good players who we think have great promise. Then we could also get Joe Root. I think we have a good team,” Sangakkara told TOI from Kochi.
At the same time, the Royals coach mused, “Brook would have fitted our team well.”
Elaborating on what the thought process was, he said: “It was about what addition would make our team better, the first XI you put on the pitch. And the answer was that we had to target Brook. And then was Holder or maybe Nicholas Pooran. But with a limited budget, we really had to plan this.
The former Sri Lanka captain added they were “caught in the middle”. “It was a complicated decision that we had to make in terms of best-case and worst-case scenario planning and we were caught in the middle, but we were well prepared with a lot of planning, data and thought. So it was a long process.
We have the core from last season. The team we kept is the result of our good results last season. We have the bowling, we have the stick and we just needed a few additions to refine it,” he signed.
Players bought by Royals in an IPL mini-auction: Jason Holder (5.75 crore), Donovan Ferreira (50 lakh), Kunal Rathore (20 lakh), Adam Zampa (1.5 crore), KM Asif (30 lakh), Murugan Ashwin (20 lakh), Akash Vashisht (20 lakh), Abdul PA (20 lakh), Joe Root (1 crore)
