Dubey has been promising big and delivering far less for some time now. His bowling has become a meme and batting largely inconsistent. I think RCB probably expects Sundar to take up additional responsibilities.
I think by getting Sams, they are planning to fill the Morris hole.
Also, Josh Philippe will become a regular and a WK while Abdv will be freed of some burden. So most likely the following will make the four overseas players in the XI
Abdv
Philippe
Sams
Zappa
Philippe (WK)
Padikkal
Kohli
Abdv
....
....
Sundar (all rounder)
Sams (all rounder)
Zampa
Chahal
Siraj
They will need two good Indian middle order batsmen to fill in the blanks. Also, I expect Shahbaz to bowl more this IPL and offer variety which means Zampa might get benched - which will free up a overseas slot for a good middle order batsmen. So I won't be surprised if RCB goes all out for Steve Smith.
Not fully convinced retaining both Chahal and Zampa makes a lot of sense.
I thought Dube done enough to be persisted with but I guess 5 crore is a sizeable amount to free up and we hopefully can get him for cheaper in the auction although I'm not too sure with lack of established Indian players around.
I'm not sure about Phillipe at all - no problem retaining him given he was bought for only 20 lakh and you need depth in overseas players. Not sure about Sams either and such a lineup leaves the franchise scrambling for the very thing there is not a whole lot of - Indian quality middle-order batsman. You would imagine KXIP may go in aggressively for a Dinesh Karthik and with so few Indian players you imagine those Indian players available will be hard to get. It seems weird to basically let go of our 2 main Indian middle-order options, its unlikely we'll need the 50 lakh we gained by letting go of Gurkeerat Singh Mann. Agree about Zampa - 1.5 crore and its unlikely he plays if we bring good overseas players in - if Zampa justifies the 1.5 crore fee of retaining him I think that says that we had a bad auction.
At least with Morris he is an overseas player so will be easier to replace but I'd have gone with the following I think -
Paddikal
Sundar
Kohli
(overseas bat)
ABDV (overseas)
(Indian bat ideally DK although that would be unlikely)
Dube
Morris (overseas)
K Richardson (overseas)
Chahal
Siraj/Saini
Apart from those in the first team would have retained Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Josh Phillipe, and Shahbdaz Ahmed.
Would give us 21.9 crore for an overseas batsman - I'd go for Root and a second option when he isn't available and try for DK although that is unlikely. As a worst case scenario bring Gurkeerat Singh Mann into the XI and have him as a floater - if we are doing well bring Dube and Morris further up - if we are not doing well he can do a bit of a repair job.
Edit - just remembered DK was actually retained - saw so much before the retention that he would be released, I had forgotten lol. DK must be devastated as could have broken records for auction fee if he was released I think. Intrigued what RCB do next year with retentions by the start of IPL 2022 - the first after mega auction - ABD is 38, Kohli is 32, Chahal is 31, whilst I was saying keep Morris he would be 34, turning 35 halfway through IPL 2022 - whilst it would be a shock if Kohli and Chahal were not still fixtures of the franchise by the next mega-auction, could you bank on a 40 year old ABD - maybe but not a guarantee either. Whilst it's easier to replace him as an overseas player than if he was Indian - you are still losing out. Is there much room for long-term optimism for the franchise?
