Moeen Ali's departure can hurt RCB: Parthiv Patel

Former Indian wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel believes that RCB could not answer a lot of questions during the IPL 2021 auction. Patel added that England all-rounder Moeen Ali could have given more dimension to the team's playing XI. Notably, Moeen Ali was bought by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for a whopping amount of Rs 7 crore. The English off-spinner had set a base price of Rs 2 crore going into the IPL 2021 Mini-Auction.

All eight IPL teams will play at neutral venues in the forthcoming season of the T20 tournament. The Eden Gardens in Kolkata will host RCB's last five league matches. Notably, the track in Kolkata generally assists spinners. Parthiv Patel believes as RCB were anticipating playing their home games at the Chinnaswamy, they decided against keeping off-spinner Moeen Ali. Furthermore, the 36-year-old stated that carrying proper momentum towards the tournament's end phase was more important than getting off to a good start. To justify his point, Parthiv Patel cited the example of five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians, who are known to peak in the second half of the tournament.

Moeen Ali's IPL stats 

The English all-rounder will now ply his trade for the Chennai Super Kings in the upcoming season of the IPL. IPL 2021 will be Moeen Ali's fourth season in the cash-rich league. Last year, the English off-spinner featured in only three games for the RCB, who finished fourth on the points table. Ali didn't make a significant impact in any of the three games that he played. Overall, Moeen Ali has featured in 19 games in the IPL. He has accumulated 309 runs at an average of 20.6, while his strike rate reads 158.46. The 33-year-old also has three half-centuries to his name. On the bowling front, the off-spinner has picked up ten wickets at an economy of 7.13.

Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL 2021 squad

Retained players

Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Yuzvendra Chahal, Md. Siraj, AB de Villiers, Navdeep Saini, Kane Richardson, Washington Sundar, Joshua Phillipe, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed, Adam Zampa.

Players bought at Auction

Glenn Maxwell (Rs 14.25 crore), Daniel Christian (Rs 4.8 crore), Kyle Jamieson (Rs 15 crore), Mohammed Azharrudeen (Rs 20 lakh), Sachin Baby (Rs 20 lakh), Suyash Prabhudesai (Rs 20 lakh), Rajat Patidar (Rs 20 lakh), KS Bharat (Rs 20 lakh).

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