Rachin Ravindra‘s coming to his second home, Bengaluru. Although born in Wellington, the southpaw has made M. Chinnasamy Stadium his home by his incredible performance in all formats at the venue. It isn’t that shocking. Rachin was born to parents who were originally from Bengaluru, and it’s only fair that he joins the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
RCB gets Rachin Ravindra cheaply at ‘mock’ IPL 2025 auction
But pump your breaks; this isn’t official. All of this happened at Ravichandran Ashwin’s mock Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 mega auction. Rachin has a base price of Rs 2 crore at the real auction, and so Ashwin’s auction rules followed the same. However, at the spinner’s mock IPL 2025 auction, franchises were allowed to start the bidding process at Rs 5 and 10 crore.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) quit immediately after starting the bidding wars. Then Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) took over until the price came to Rs 4.25 crore, and then PBKS backed out. RCB joined the race at that point and took him home for Rs 6 crore.
RCB, the team where Rachin Ravindra belongs?
Bengaluru might not be the perfect franchise for the Kiwi, but the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium is the perfect venue for him. As mentioned above Rachin has been exceptional across formats in Bengaluru. He’s played just 5 innings and gotten two half-centuries and one hundred. His lowest score is 39 and averages more than 60 in each format.
T20 is the most relevant format here, and although Rachin hasn’t played an international match at Chinnaswamy, he’s played against RCB in IPL 2024. He scored a blistering half-century (61 off 37) in that match but couldn’t take CSK across the line.
One mustn’t forget that RCB hasn’t retained Faf du Plessis, and Rachin could be the perfect replacement for him. He’s just 24 and can represent Bengaluru for a long time. On top of that, he can be Virat Kohli‘s opening partner, and their right-left combination could work wonders for RCB.
Rachin Ravindra at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium
| Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 100s | 50s | Highest Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test | 1 | 173 | 173 | 85.64 | 1 | 0 | 134 |
| ODI | 2 | 150 | 75 | 117.18 | 1 | 0 | 108 |
| IPL | 1 | 61 | 61 | 164.90 | 0 | 1 | 61 |
