Royal Challengers Bangalore medium pacer Harshal Patel on Tuesday revealed that he felt “insulted” after being overlooked by franchises during the 2018 IPL auctions, which motivated him to work on his batting and become a worthy all-rounder.

The 30-year-old was bought by Delhi Capitals for his base price of `20 Lakh in 2018. However, he did not get many opportunities to play.

“In 2018 IPL, a lot of people didn’t show interest in me and that struck me, I took it as an insult within myself because I wanted to become a player who was a match-winner and had a lot of value,” Patel said during a virtual press conference.

“So, then I realised that if I work a little bit on my batting and people start having faith in my batting then I can become that valuable player. Batting is something that I have always done well, but I have never focused a lot.

“But if I find my way around any difficulties that I face in batting and scoring runs in difficult situations and then I can definitely prove my worth as an all-rounder,” he added.

Patel produced a death over masterclass with a five-wicket haul against Mumbai Indians in the IPL opener last Friday.

The medium pacer said he has had to deal with a lot of performance-related anxiety due to the ruthless nature of the IPL, where a player is dropped after one bad match.

“I’ve had massive performance anxieties, in preceding years in IPL for this particular reason that even if you have one bad game, you are the fifth bowler, you know you are going to get dropped.

“But it’s a very mental thing, you have to figure out a way and how do you get out of the mindset. Because if you continue to play with that mindset you will never be able to express yourself on the field. Each and every individual has to figure out how to get out of it.