India spinner Kuldeep Yadav jokingly criticised Royal Challengers Bengaluru's failure to lift the Indian Premier League (IPL) title so far. Despite enjoying a tremendous fan following, the team struggled to get over the line in the cash-rich tournament and Kuldeep didn’t waste the opportunity to remind them about the same.
Notably, the left-arm wrist spinner was part of a YouTube live session alongside Zeeshan Khan of Talk Football HD when an RCB fan requested him to join their squad. However, the request was extremely modified as he was asked to join the team as a goalkeeper. The 30-year-old, who’s an avid football fan, plays as a goalkeeper but he didn’t take the request kindly and retaliated with a humorous response.
“Kuldeep bhai, RCB mai aa jao, ek goalkeeper ki jarurat hai,” the fan said.
“Tumhe goalkeeper ki jarurat nahi, tumhe trophy ki jarurat hai bhai,” Kuldeep responded.
The spinner was retained for INR 13.25 crore by Delhi Capitals ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auctions. Previously, the 30-year-old represented Kolkata Knight Riders in the competition and won the prestigious title in 2014. Since then, Kuldeep hasn’t been able to win the championship or come any close.
In the meantime, Bengaluru have released their multiple star players - Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell among others ahead of the next season. They have signed the likes of Phil Salt, Liam Livingstone, Josh Hazlewood, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar among others. Reports claim that star cricketer Virat Kohli is likely to take over the captaincy baton.
The 36-year-old was recently seen leading the Indian team in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence on Day 3 of the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney. He is the favourite to take up the RCB captaincy role but the team management is yet to confirm. They are expected to announce ahead of the new season in the ‘RCB Unbox’ event.