BENGALURU: India pacer Mohammed Siraj expressed his gratitude towards the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for retaining him ahead of the mega auction of the upcoming season.
The players retained by RCB include -- Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj.
"Thank you RCB family for retaining me and showing trust and faith in me. I am really honoured. And my message to RCB fans - keep supporting, keep loving us," said Siraj in a video posted on the official YouTube channel of RCB.
All-rounder Glenn Maxwell also thanked RCB for retaining him and said he hopes that the franchise would go 'a couple of steps further' and win the title.
"Shout out to the RCB management for retaining me for the upcoming IPL season. We have a lot of fans this year and we hope that we go a couple of steps further next year and win that title. I know that the fans will be there and supporting us in the red and black outfits and hopefully, we can put up a massive show next year," said Maxwell.
Kohli, who has been with the team since inception was retained for Rs 15 crores. Maxwell, who was signed by the team last season, remains with the Bold Brigade with a tag of Rs 11 crores. Siraj, who has been with the team since 2018, will carry on with RCB for a sum of Rs 7 crores.
Speaking about the retained players, Mike Hesson, Director of Cricket Operations, RCB said, "The player retention process has been pretty robust and exhaustive. We've got an exceptional bunch of players but the key for us was to ensure we have a sizeable auction purse going into the IPL Mega Auction. We had many good players whom we considered and were happy to retain, but that would have taken away our flexibility from the auction to get a balanced squad."
"We look to retain as many players during the auction as we build the perfect squad for 2022 and beyond," he added.
