Wanindu Hasaranga and Faf du Plessis lead RCB recruits

The Sri Lanka leggie returns after two appearances in the 2021 tournament, while Josh Hazlewood and Dinesh Karthik are the other notable additions

Wanindu Hasaranga will return to Royal Challengers Bangalore after they prevailed in a lengthy bidding war for the Sri Lanka leg-spinner.

It took an offer of 10.75 crore (£985,000) to see off interest from Sunrisers Hydrabad and Punjab Kings.

The bidding for Hasaranga was paused temporarily after auctioneer Hugh Edmeades collapsed.

It was later confirmed that Edmeades was in a stable condition after being attended to by a medical team.

Charu Sharma took over the process but there were no further offers for Hasaranga.

It was an expensive and busy day for RCB, who are seeking to end a run of five seasons without an appearance in the playoffs.

They will hope the return of bowling allrounder Harshal Patel (10.75 crore, £985,000) can help arrest that unwanted streak, seeing off competition first from Chennai Super Kings and then Sunrisers.

Adding depth throughout the batting order was also successfully achieved with the addition of Faf du Plessis following four years at defending champions CSK. The South African was picked up for 7.75 crore (£691,857).

^{Josh Hazlewood (Mark Evans/Getty Images)}

Dinesh Karthik (5.5 crore, £493,834) is back with RCB after a seven-year absence and is joined by the Australia quick Josh Hazlewood.

After standing back and allowing Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians take the lead of the bidding, RCB came in late to pick up the right-armer for 7.75 crore (£691,857) in what will be just his third campaign in the IPL.

Though they did eventually secure the services of a front-line fast-bowler in Hazlewood, RCB also launched offers for Trent Boult, Mohammed Shami and Lockie Ferguson.

India batter Shreyas Iyer also represented another failed pursuit.

As the uncapped sets rounded off the opening day of the auction, RCB kept their powder dry but did secure the return of Shahbaz Ahmed, before back-up wicketkeeper Anuj Rawat was prised away from Titans. Anuj Rawat and Akash Deep rounded off their business.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Faf du Plessis, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, Shahbaz Ahamad, Akash Deep, Josh Hazlewood