Former Indian batter Aakash Chopra feels that Royal Challengers Bangalore made things easy for Mumbai Indians by acquiring Cameron Green, who eventually gave them a purse to bring Hardik Pandya back into the team.
The Australian all-rounder made a transfer to the Bangalore-based franchise ahead of the IPL 2024 auction, contributing a substantial ₹17.5 crore to MI’s balance of ₹15.25 crore after the retention process. This enabled the five-time champions to secure Hardik Pandya from the Gujarat Titans for ₹15 crore while still having ₹17.75 crore in their purse for the upcoming auction.
While talking to his official YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra said, “Green has gone red or you can say RCB have gone Green. They did a huge favor to Mumbai because if this deal had not happened, the Hardik deal wouldn’t have happened. Things have changed suddenly.”
The former KKR opener also feels that RCB could have bought the star all-rounder from Australia at a cheaper rate, in the upcoming mini-auction.
“It wouldn’t have been a bad idea to stop (Hardik’s) deal by not doing this (Green’s) deal. I am seeing it from Bangalore’s perspective and not from Mumbai’s. They (MI) would have released him (Green). Would you have got Cameron Green more expensive than 17.5 crores if they had released him?”
However, Aakash Chopra is happy with the inclusion of Green in RCB. He said that it would provide extra batting depth to the team with Faf du Plessis, Maxwell, and Virat Kohli already taking the charge in the top order.
