When Royal Challengers Bangalore snapped up Jacob Duffy at his base price of ₹2 crore during the IPL mini-auction, it barely made a ripple. No bidding war. No spotlight. Just a quiet pick. But here’s the twist—RCB may have pulled off one of the smartest buys of the season.
Duffy has quietly built a reputation as one of New Zealand’s most in-form pacers across formats. His international journey began in 2020 with a dream T20I debut against Pakistan—he took 4 wickets and won Player of the Match. But surprisingly, despite three T20 World Cups being played since then, Duffy wasn’t picked in any of them.
However, 2025 has changed the game for him. Duffy took 81 international wickets across formats this year—more than any other New Zealand bowler in history, even surpassing the legendary Sir Richard Hadlee’s calendar year record.
In Test cricket, he’s been devastating—25 wickets from just 4 matches, including a five-wicket haul in each game during a three-match series against the West Indies. That performance earned him the Player of the Series title.
In T20Is, his numbers are just as elite: 53 wickets from 36 innings, including 35 in 2024 alone, making him the first Kiwi to claim over 30 T20I wickets in a single year. His dot ball rate? 53.1%—a stat that puts him among the most efficient bowlers in world cricket right now.
He also made his presence felt in The Hundred, finishing as joint second-highest wicket-taker for the Northern Superchargers with 8 wickets in 7 innings, despite bowling on high-scoring surfaces.
Veteran spinner R Ashwin even called RCB’s buy a “steal”, and he might be absolutely right. With a bowling line-up featuring Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, and Nuwan Thushara, Duffy may not be in the initial playing XI. But if an opportunity comes—especially if Hazlewood's fitness becomes a concern—Duffy is more than ready to step up.
RCB didn’t just invest in another overseas pacer. They invested in a high-performing, under-the-radar wicket machine. And if given the chance, Jacob Duffy could very well be the surprise package of IPL 2025.
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