Rajasthan Royals went into the auction with a limited purse of Rs 41 crore. On expected lines, RR were cautious during the mega auction in terms of picking up players. They added 14 players to their roster. Jofra Archer, who has previously been one of the mainstays of RR’s attack, is back in the mix. The franchise has also added some punch to their spin-bowling stocks.
RR also stumped everyone by picking up the 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi for Rs 1.10 crore. The young batter had recently cracked a quick-fire ton versus Australia U-19. Incidentally, they had retained six players before the auction – Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer and Sandeep Sharma.
Hits:
Nitish Rana – The southpaw, who has over 2600 runs in the IPL, could form an integral part of RR’s unit. The middle-order batter, however, hasn’t exactly been among the runs over the last few seasons. RR would still trust Nitish to provide heft to their batting line-up, comprising mainly Indian batters.
Jofra Archer – The England speedster was in supreme form in the 2020 IPL, bagging 20 wickets. Unfortunately, since then, he has been plagued by elbow and back issues. At his very best, Archer has a mean bumper, alongside possessing the skills to move the ball and bowl yorkers and variations in the slog.
Wanindu Hasaranga/Maheesh Theekshana – With RR picking the Sri Lankan duo, they have some firepower in the spin department. Both the spinners have enough variations in their arsenal and generally bowl quicker through the air. The kind of skills that could come in handy at their home ground.
Tushar Deshpande/Fazalhaq Farooqi – RR have further strengthened their pace-bowling stocks by buying Deshpande and Farooqi. Deshpande is a wholehearted cricketer and Farooqi is basically RR’s replacement for Trent Boult. The skiddy left-arm pacer swings the bowl upfront. RR also bought the young South African paceman, Kwena Maphaka.
Misses:
RR perhaps needed one more established power-hitter down the order. It is true that Shimron Hetmyer can give it a mighty thump and has done rather well for the franchise. He also cracked a blistering 91 against St Kitts and Nevis Patriots recently in the CPL. But, somewhere, RR could have bought another finisher. Glenn Phillips was an option. Liam Livingstone also was in the auction list, but with their purse, it was always going to be tough for RR to bid for him.
In that respect, RR could be looking towards Shubham Dubey, the left-hander, to showcase his pyrotechnics. The franchise has also lost out on the services of Yuzvendra Chahal, the experienced leg-spinner.
Overall Rating – 7/10
RR IPL Squad: Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Kwena Maphaka, Kunal Rathore, Ashok Sharma, Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Sandeep Sharma, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Wanindu Hasaranga, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Nitish Rana