Liam Livingstone, the all-rounder from England, displayed joy after his inclusion in the team Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, saying that the team would be a better place to fit his playing style next season. Livingstone made his IPL debut with Rajasthan Royals in 2019 and spent the last three seasons with Punjab Kings, where the middle-order batter scored 827 runs in the world’s richest T20 league.
Before the auction, however, the 31-year-old was released and returned to Royal Challengers, who were remodelling their team and subsequently bought him for 87.5 million Indian rupees ($1.04 million) after battle with Chennai Super Kings during auction. Livingstone, on the other hand, was really impatient to play for RCB, especially in home matches, at the Chinnaswamy Stadium which has been known to produce high-scoring games due to shorter boundaries.
“Fan base is very passionate. It’s quite possibly one of the biggest franchises in the IPL… This is kind of a new start for me,” Livingstone said to the journalist from Reuters. “I think Bangalore will be very good for my game. It’s a little bit smaller than some of the grounds in India, certainly a lot better than what Punjab was for me. Hopefully, my game should suit that place well.”
Livingstone remembers very well of him watching on TV RCB’s batting trio: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, and AB de Villiers. But he complemented that “there’s a lot of work to be done” before he could come close to matching that kind of impact with Kohli and English opener Phil Salt, who was bought by RCB at a price of 115 million Indian rupees in pursuit of their first IPL trophy.
He said relatively, “Good auction I guess; we got some good players as well, one of those that picked up really clever.”
“There are a few people in that team that I have gotten to know pretty well, so I am pretty excited to get out with the group. Playing with the likes of Virat is going to be really cool.”
Livingstone is swashbuckling at the moment for the Bangla Tigers in the Abu Dhabi T10, having scored a 15-ball 50 just this week.
He said, “I think T10 really comes on for me in terms of my role because you come in with not many balls to go, so that certainly sets me up for the rest of the year.”
