Team Preview
The 16th Season of Indian Premier League is around the corner and fans cannot curb their excitement. You can catch our IPL 2023 Overview here. In this article, we will talk about the Rajasthan Royals in detail.
Last season, Rajasthan Royals came mightily close of winning their 2nd IPL trophy. They had displayed what seemed a very exuberant brand of cricket throughout the season. Their batting order will once again be the major driving force for them to attain success. Samson’s calm head at the helm, gels well for the entire unit as they look to carry on from where they’d left, when they take on SRH in their 1st game of this season
Last Season Standing: Alongside being runners up in the final, they finished 2nd on the points tally as well, managing 9 wins & 5 losses during the league phase
Schedule of RR Matches
Match 4: April 2, Sunday: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals at Hyderabad at 3:30 PM
Match 8: April 5, Wednesday: Rajasthan Royals vs Punjab Kings at Guwahati at 7:30 PM
Match 11: April 8, Saturday: Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Capitals at Guwahati at 3:30 PM
Match 17: April 12, Wednesday: Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals at Chennai at 7:30 PM
Match 23: April 16, Sunday: Gujarat Titans vs Rajasthan Royals at Ahmedabad at 7:30 PM
Match 26: April 19, Wednesday: Rajasthan Royals vs Lucknow Super Giants at Jaipur at 7:30 PM
Match 32: April 23, Sunday: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Rajasthan Royals at Bengaluru at 3:30 PM
Match 37: April 27, Thursday: Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings at Jaipur at 7:30 PM
Match 42: April 30, Sunday: Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals at Mumbai at 7:30 PM
Match 48: May 5, Friday: Rajasthan Royals vs Gujarat Titans at Jaipur at 7:30 PM
Match 52: May 7, Sunday: Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad at Jaipur at 7:30 PM
Match 56: May 11, Thursday: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan Royals at Kolkata at 7:30 PM
Match 60: May 14, Sunday: Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore at Jaipur at 3:30 PM
Match 66: May 19, Friday: Punjab Kings vs Rajasthan Royals at Dharamshala at 7:30 PM
SQUAD
BATTERS: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Joe Root, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Kunal Rathore
ALL-ROUNDERS: Ravichandran Ashwin, Jason Holder, Abdul Basith
BOWLERS: Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Murugan Ashwin, Sandeep Sharma, Obed McCoy, KC Cariappa, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Akash Vasisht, Kuldip Yadav, KM Asif
WKs: Sanju Samson (c), Jos Buttler, Donavon Ferreira, Dhruv Jurel
Changes to the Roster from last season
Major INs: Joe Root, Adam Zampa, Sandeep Sharma
Major OUTs: Prasidh Krishna,James Neesham, Daryl Mitchell
Squad News/Changes:
Prasidh Krishna has been replaced by Sandeep Sharma, with the former yet to recover from the stress fracture suffered last year
Key Players
Jos Buttler Batter (RHB)
“Jos holds fort, and RR emerge out on top”, Buttler ensured there were innumerable opportunities for this headline to keep doing rounds after almost every other RR game, such was his class with the bat throughout last season. He finished the tournament with well over 850 runs, 4 Centuries & a well deserved Orange Cap. Though, all of this would’ve felt of no use with him failing to lift the trophy in the final. He’ll once again set foot with the aim to help his side go all the way this season with him leading the charge as usual
Sanju Samson Batter (RHB)
This season will be a whole lot valuable for Samson than any other before, the major reason being this being the World Cup year, and he knows all that’s needed from him is the same kind of performances he’s been putting on for RR over the years. He is heading into this season with back 2 back 450+ runs season under his belt. Last season was his 2nd best in terms of runs (458). Scoring rate with him is never an issue, as he displayed last season scoring all those runs at a healthy SR of 146.8. With competition heating up, he knows what’s at stake, and this could well bring the best out of him, which is going to benefit RR by leaps and bounds
Yuzvendra Chahal Bowler (RALB)
Chahal was simply magical with his wizardry in his very 1st season with RR. It never seemed like he’s playing for a new franchise, he kept doing what he’d been doing at RCB all these years & that being, picking wickets day in day out. After being released by RCB ahead of the season, he had more to prove to his own self rather than his former franchise, that he’s still got the hunger, and he did exactly that. It was his determinant effort that helped him take home the Purple Cap: Inns- 17 | Wkts- 27 | Avg- 19 | SR- 15
He had never picked more than 23 wickets in a season before, but having bettered that by 4 wickets, he’ll be more than pleased if he replicates the same returns this season
One to Watch Out for
Yashasvi Jaiswal Batter (LHB)
Yashasvi put in similar returns last season, as to what he’d done in the one preceding that. His overall aggregates across the last 2 seasons being: Inns- 20 | Runs- 507 | Avg- 25 | SR- 140
His average might not be the most impressive ones for a top order batter, but what stands out is his ability to take on any bowler right from ball 1, irrespective of how big a name he is. This also helps Buttler play with caution at times, with Yashasvi taking it upon himself to maximize the scoring rate during the field restrictions in the PP. He’s been in good run of form in recent times, having finished with the 2nd most number of runs for Mumbai during the SMAT, despite batting out of position in the middle order: Inns- 9 | Runs- 266| Avg- 35 | SR- 141
What do you think then are RR’s chances for this IPL Season?
