Veteran RCB batter AB de Villiers opined on the players released by the defending champions ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. Notably, they retained the majority of their main players with a few big releases like Liam Livingstone, Mayank Agarwal, and Lungi Ngidi as well.

“No surprise here as we kept the bulk of the team together. I was hoping they would do something along these lines and they ended up doing that. Almost keeping that starting 11 from the final. Liam and Lungi both played well at times, but there will be some thinking behind that. I am not completely surprised (Liam release). He was a little bit inconsistent and there were other players who put up their hands. That opens up the purse which is crucial as they fight to get the balance right,” he said on his YouTube channel.

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“We know Hazlewood will be playing the Ashes, huge workload. Will he be fit and ready to go? Will he play all the matches or just half? We don’t know that. So Livingstone doesn’t solve that problem. They will target an Indian or overseas pacer and there needs to be backup. They’ve kept the bulk and they do believe now. There’s no reason for chopping and changing,” he further added.

However, AB De Villiers also opined on the five-time IPL winners Mumbai Indians (MI). He also added that they made some good moves with their trades as well. MI traded in Shardul Thakur from LSG, Sherfane Rutherford from GT and Mayank Markande from KKR as well. Meanwhile, MI retained Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ryan Rickleton, Naman Dhir, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, and Deepak Chahar, and AB de Villiers felt that it was a solid core as well.

“Interesting moves from MI with the trades. Not much to add to be honest. They’ve kept a decent bulk too. They’ll maybe just tweak but you dont have to tweak much with the solid base that they have,” he concluded.