Gautam Gambhir 'surprised' over RCB's decision to release Umesh Yadav ahead of IPL Auction

Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has said that he is surprised with the Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) decision to release one of the frontline pacers Umesh Yadav ahead of the IPL 2021 mini-auction that will be held in Chennai on Thursday. 

The Vidharbha pacer only managed to get two games in the last season where he went wicketless on both occasions. He had bowled seven overs where he conceded 83 runs at a not-so-impressive economy rate of 11.85. Despite his forgettable outing, Gambhir reckons that Yadav would have provided the much-needed experience in the bowling setup.

'Releasing Umesh Yadav was the big surprise': Gautam Gambhir

“There are not many fast bowlers going around in the Indian circuit at the moment. You have got Navdeep Saini who is young, you’ve got someone like Mohammed Siraj, he can go hot and cold in T20 cricket. So probably releasing Umesh Yadav was the big surprise,”  said Gambhir while speaking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected – Auction Special.

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List of players released by RCB ahead of 2021 IPL Auctions

Even though the three-time finalists had succeeded in making the playoffs after a long wait of four years in the Dream11 IPL 2020, they released 10 players for the upcoming IPL 2021 season. 

While the management decided to release a few names, they were forced to strike off two names from their list and those names include former wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel and veteran South African fast bowler Dale Steyn. Patel had announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in December and therefore, it was a no-brainer that he was never in the Bangalore team management's scheme of things for the upcoming season.

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Meanwhile, Steyn had made it clear to the Bangalore franchise on his official Twitter handle that he did not wish to participate in the 14th edition of the marquee tournament due to personal reasons. 

At the same time, the three-time finalists decided not to go ahead with a handful of players after an underwhelming performance in the previous edition. These players include Indian Test specialist Umesh Yadav, Proteas all-rounder Chris Morris, English all-rounder Moeen Ali, Australian limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch, Sri Lankan all-rounder Isuru Udana, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, all-rounders Shivam Dube and Pawan Negi. 

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