RCB’s Mo Bobat justifies signing Venkatesh Iyer for Rs 7 crore ahead of IPL 2026, calling it a ‘no-brainer’. Bobat emphasized that Iyer’s quality and experience strengthen the squad and foster competition, despite a subpar 2025 season.
‘A no-brainer’ to sign Venkatesh Iyer
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) director of cricket Mo Bobat said that a player of Venkatesh Iyer’s experience and quality strengthens the squad and adding him to the team is a “no-brainer,” ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season.
Indian all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer, who won the IPL 2025 with Kolkata Knight Riders, was snapped up by RCB at the 2026 IPL auction for Rs 7 crore. Notably, Venkatesh’s IPL 2025 was below-average in terms of performance. In the seven innings that he batted, Venkatesh Iyer could only manage 142 runs at an average of 20.28.
Focus on squad strength and competition
Ahead of the IPL 2026, RCB director of cricket Mo Bobat said that while the team has not made any selection decisions yet, adding a player of Venkatesh Iyer’s calibre is a no-brainer. “We want competition for places. Adding a player of Venky’s (Venkatesh Iyer) quality, experience, and calibre is a no-brainer. You strengthen the squad. You worry about selection as you get towards the first game. The first thing to say is that we haven’t selected our team for the first game yet, so we haven’t made any decisions on selection. Still a few days to go. Ultimately, our main objective at the auction was to strengthen the squad,” Bobat stated.
Mo Bobat said RCB hasn’t finalised selections yet, but securing a player like Venkatesh Iyer was a priority. He emphasised building a strong squad to foster competition and ambitious goals, with final lineup decisions to be clarified in the coming days.
“So, look, we haven’t made any decisions just yet, but the fact that we were able to attract a player like him, get him to the franchise and have him as an option was our priority at this stage. We want competition for places. We’re very ambitious about what we want to achieve,” he said. “And you do that by having not just 11 or 12 players. you do that by having a you know really strong squad. So that’s as far as we’re concerned right now where we’re at and then over the next few days we’ll clarify our decisions on selection,” Mo Bobat added.
RCB’s title defence begins
Defending champions RCB will kick off their title defence against Sunrisers Hyderabad on March 28 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. (ANI)
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