Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) legend AB de Villiers made a huge remark on the players released by the defending champions ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. They retained the majority of their main players with a few big releases like Liam Livingstone, Mayank Agarwal, and Lungi Ngidi. Ad De Villiers reflected that he was not surprised by Livingstone’s release, as the England all-rounder was inconsistent in the IPL 2025 season. He scored 112 runs in eight innings at an average of 16 and a strike-rate of 133. 33. Livingstone was acquired for ₹8. 75 crore but failed to justify the price tag. “No surprise here as we kept the bulk of the team together. I was hoping they would do something along these lines and they ended up doing that. Almost keeping that starting 11 from the final. Liam and Lungi both played well at times, but there will be some thinking behind that. I am not completely surprised (Liam release). He was a little bit inconsistent and there were other players who put up their hands. That opens up the purse which is crucial as they fight to get the balance right,” he said on his YouTube channel. Ad Trending The RCB legend also raised concern regarding pacer Josh Hazlewood’s fitness. Hazlewood has been ruled out of the first Ashes 2025-26 Test. He reckoned that they would need a backup for Hazlewood. “We know Hazlewood will be playing the Ashes, huge workload. Will he be fit and ready to go? Will he play all the matches or just half? We don’t know that. So Livingstone doesn’t solve that problem. They will target an Indian or overseas pacer and there needs to be backup. They’ve kept the bulk and they do believe now. There’s no reason for chopping and changing,” he added. Ad Another release that surprised De Villiers slightly was that of Rachin Ravindra by the five-time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK). However, Ravindra did not have a great season last year, scoring just 191 runs from eight matches. He also reckoned that Sanju Samson, who was traded in from the Rajasthan Royals (RR), would play as a batter with MS Dhoni set to return. Five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians have a solid base, feels AB De Villiers Further, AB De Villiers spoke about the five-time IPL winners Mumbai Indians (MI). He reckoned that they made some good moves with their trades. MI traded in Shardul Thakur from Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Sherfane Rutherford from Gujarat Titans (GT), and Mayank Markande from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Ad MI retained their core with Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ryan Rickleton, Naman Dhir, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, and Deepak Chahar being held back among others. Therefore, De Villiers felt that it was a solid core and MI would not have to do a lot at the auction. “Interesting moves from MI with the trades. Not much to add to be honest. They’ve kept a decent bulk too. They’ll maybe just tweak but you dont have to tweak much with the solid base that they have,” he said. MI will head into the IPL 2026 auction with a purse of ₹2. 75 crore and five slots remaining. × Feedback Why did you not like this content? Clickbait / Misleading Factually Incorrect Hateful or Abusive Baseless Opinion Too Many Ads Other Was this article helpful? Thank You for feedback Get real-time updates on IPL 2025, live scores, IPL Prediction, match schedule, points table, Result & squad -CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS Edited by Rishab Vm.
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