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Australia's swashbuckling batter Glenn Maxwell was roped in by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for a whopping ₹14.25 crore at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in 2021. The franchise signed the player by winning an intense bidding war against Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
After being roped in by RCB, Glenn Maxwell disclosed that during India's tour of Australia in 2020-21, he had a chat with Virat Kohli about the possibility of him joining Bengaluru. The Australian all-rounder said in a video shared by RCB on social media:
"We had been texting a fair bit. We obviously caught up. We chatted after the ODI and T20I series in Australia. He talked to me about potentially playing for RCB. If I got the opportunity, he said 'We would love to have you'. But obviously, there was an auction.
"He said it would be wonderful to have you. He floated the idea back even then. There was a long process in work. Thankfully, I am playing for RCB now."
Glenn Maxwell also revealed that on the day of the action, his Australian teammate Adam Zampa presented him with the RCB cap and sent the picture to Kohli, even before being signed by the franchise. Recalling Kohli's reaction, he said:
"The day of the auction, it was at night time in New Zealand. We were training while in quarantine in New Zealand. Adam Zampa had his RCB hat in his bag, so he took it out and made sure we had a photo. He sent it to Virat and said 'Let's get it over the line. Congratulations I have already given him his first cap!
"That was before the auction, so it all happened pretty well. It would have looked pretty silly if it didn't work out that way. He put the picture on afterwards but we took the photo before the auction. Virat said you guys are idiots but in a lovely way."
Glenn Maxwell had a dream debut season with RCB, finishing as the leading run-getter for the team in the 2021 edition. The right-handed batter amassed 513 runs across 14 innings at an average of 42.75. He was retained by Bengaluru for ₹11 crore ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction.
Glenn Maxwell had a disastrous season for RCB in IPL 2024
Glen Maxwell followed up his blockbuster first season with RCB by chalking up 301 and 400 runs in the subsequent two editions. However, he struggled to get going with the bat in IPL 2024.
The dynamic batter featured in 10 matches and finished with just 52 runs at an average of 5.78. Maxwell also took a short break during the tournament to recover from mental and physical fatigue.
It remains to be seen if the 35-year-old will be retained by the RCB think tank or not before the upcoming IPL 2025 mega auction.
