Abhinav Mukund made a major accusation in a recent conversation, claiming that AB de Villiers believed he was overpaid by RCB during the IPL. The prominent commentator stated that he was sitting next to the South African, who truly meant it when he declared he got paid more than he deserved by the 2025 champions during his playing days.

AB de Villiers remarked this in light of the sum RCB had to pay for some of their key players in the IPL 2025.

He said that none of the present squad members were paid more than INR 15 crore and that it was fantastic to acquire match-winners like Josh Hazlewood, Phil Salt, and others for a reasonable fee before the 18th season of the league.

“I was sitting next to AB de Villiers when he told me something that I don’t think any IPL legend has spoken. But he meant it; he spoke from a place of heart. Mukund mentioned that he said, ‘I was overpaid’.

“I’m overpaid; I believed I was overpaid because I feel like all of the other aspects you’re mentioning, right? Where you can buy so many other great players, including the match winners you mentioned. The most money they spent was on someone like Phil Salt or Josh Hazlewood. “They did not exceed 15 (INR 15 crore),” Mukund claimed.

He further felt RCB would be pleased with the fact that they did not go all the way for Venkatesh Iyer, who cost INR 23.75 crore to KKR and did not perform as per expectations. Mukund claimed RCB could buy Salt, Hazlewood, Jitesh, and saved some amount to spend on Bhuvneshwar Kumar by not bidding higher than KKR for Iyer.

“In hindsight, they must be thinking, thank God we didn’t go all the way for Venkatesh Iyer. Because their last losing bid was Venkatesh Iyer. And the next three buys were Josh Hazlewood, Jitesh Sharma and I think Phil Salt. Those were the next three buys. And they saved so much in the bank for day two when Bhuvneshwar Kumar came in,” Mukund added.