'He deserves every rupee'

Indian cricketers had a field day at the IPL 2021 auction. Harshal Patel was signed again by Royal Challengers Bangalore for Rs 10.75 crore (Rs 107.5 million) at the IPL 2022 mega auction.

Patel was part of India's Playing XI for the opening T20I against the West Indies in Kolkata, and ahead of the game, Sunil Gavaskar lavished praise on the 31-year-old bowler.

'Look, he deserves every penny, every rupee that he earned at the auction. He put in a fabulous performance last year. And the best part about Harshal Patel is how he has reinvented himself.'

'Earlier, he was a bowler batters were looking to face because he hardly had any change of pace. He was being taken for a lot of runs. He is learning from it, he has improved from that. Now, he is the bowler that batters do not want to face because they don't know what he is going to bowl,' Gavaskar said on Star Sports.

Patel, playing for RCB, took a record-equalling 32 wickets in last year's IPL, which is the record for the joint-highest wickets by a bowler in a single edition of the league.

Gavaskar believes the amount of variations he has added in his repertoire makes him a batter's nightmare.

'He has got a very good yorker. He has got a slower bouncer. He has got a delivery that skids along quite nicely so he has got the works and he knows when to use it because of the experience he has had playing in the IPL for the last few years,' Gavaskar pointed out.

'He has only got better every year.'