'Not taking Jacks is a massive miss'

Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif has called out the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for not re-acquiring the England all-rounder Will Jacks during the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega-auction in Jeddah.

The IPL 2024 season saw Jacks become a crucial player for RCB, pivotal in the team's reaching the playoffs. His brilliant performance, including an unbeaten century against Gujarat Titans and a match-winning contribution against Sunrisers Hyderabad, was instrumental in RCB's success.

Despite this, the franchise chose not to use their Right To Match (RTM) card during the 2025 auction, allowing Mumbai Indians to pick up Jacks for INR 5.25 crore. Kaif mentioned in his criticism that the franchise didn't want good players.

"Jacks saved their honor last year. RCB came in the top four because of him. I remember two matches. With his bowling, he helped RCB beat SRH (SunRisers Hyderabad) in Hyderabad and scored a hundred against GT (Gujarat Titans) in Ahmedabad off 40 balls. So Will Jacks won them two matches on his own and they didn't take him," he said in a discussion on Star Sports.

Also Read: RCB Team 2025 Player List: Complete Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) Squad and Players List for IPL 2025

The disappointing factor of RCB's auction was not using the RTM for Jacks: Sanjay Bangar

The former also mentioned that the 2016 runner-ups let go of Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul and the fans will be extremely disappointed with this decision. He even pointed out that their auction planning went from bad to worse.

"RCB said they don't want good players. They let (Rishabh) Pant and KL (Rahul) go, and he (Jacks) played well for them. It's not easy for any batter to score a hundred. The RCB fans will be extremely disappointed. We have seen from yesterday (Day 1) that RCB's auction planning was bad, and today (Day 2) they went from bad to worse. I believe not taking Jacks is a massive miss," Kaif added.

Lending weight to Kaif's criticism, former RCB head coach Sanjay Bangar called the decision not to use the RTM for Jacks the biggest disappointing factor of the auction. Bangar believed that Jacks could have formed an explosive top four alongside Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, and Rajat Patidar.

"The biggest disappointing factor of RCB's auction was not using the RTM for Will Jacks. Yes, you got Tim David and Liam Livingstone. However, Will Jacks has the pedigree and could have attacked at the top of the order. He played at No. 3 last year as well," he said.

In IPL 2024, the Englishmen scored 230 runs in just eight innings, at a strike rate of 175.57. His unbeaten 100 off 41 deliveries against GT were crucial, helping improve RCB's net run rate and ultimately securing their playoff berth.

While RCB did make some significant acquisitions during the auction, including Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the franchise secured 19 players and exhausted most of its purse amount after two days of a marathon event.

Click here to read article