RCB wanted to have Yuvraj Singh back on board

Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bangalore Director Amrit Thomas on Saturday said the franchise team was interested in buying back Yuvraj Singh, who was eventually snapped up by Sunrisers Hyderabad for Rs. 7 crore in the Indian Premier League players' auction here.

"I don't agree (that Yuvraj did not evoke interest among bidders). If you look at the bidding we were very interested, but issues of bidding and price ceiling issues, did not allow us to go for him. He is really a marquee player and hope he plays for us sometime in the future," Thomas said told reporters here.

Yuvraj wasn't third-time lucky in terms of being the biggest buy after being the costliest player in the previous two auctions of the Twenty20 tournament.

The stylish southpaw has represented four teams, (Kings XI Punjab, Pune Warriors India, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils) playing 98 matches and scoring 2099 runs.

Thomas also said RCB was looking for an international all-rounder to get the balance right and the team is happy to have Shane Watson, for whom they shelled out a whopping Rs 9.5 crore.

"We believe so (buying Shane has added spice into the team). We were looking for Shane Watson for get the balance right in the team and finally we got him at the bargain price.

He is an international all-rounder and is the best in the world, and you can judge from his recent performance itself," Thomas said.

Australian all-rounder Watson became the first million-dollar buy of the auction going to Royal Challengers Bangalore for a whopping Rs 9.5 crore after an intense bidding war.

Raghu Iyer, CEO of Rising Pune Supergiants, said they are very happy with the players they have got including Ishant Sharma, who was bought for his good performance of late.

"We just have five players and we need to build the team, and we are trying to build the team. We were looking for all-rounders, but we are very happy with the players we got including Ishant Sharma who was bought due to his performance," he said.

Debutants Rising Pune Supergiants got Ishant Sharma for Rs 3.8 crore. They also got Kevin Pietersen for Rs 3.5 crore, the first player to go under the hammer, even though Gujarat Lions also bid intensely for the dashing England batsman.

Asked why Martin Guptill and Aaron Finch remained unsold, Iyer said, "Every individual team has its own strategy. They are talented and don't deserve to sit on he benches. They are class players."