After being crowned as the champions in the inaugral edition, the Rajasthan Royals have never reached the finals again. More often than not, they have been strangled with way too many questions and have found very few answers to those questions. The team will play five of their matches in Mumbai, four in Delhi, three in Kolkata and two in Bengaluru. The appointment of Kumar Sangakkara as their coach will add a fresh set of ideas to their gameplan.

Strengths : –

  1. Their top three comprising of the combination of either Stokes and Samson or Buttler and Samson or all three of them can give the opposition teams something to think about in terms of their plans upfront in the powerplay.
  2. Quality right-arm leggies in Rahul Tewatia, Shreyas Gopal ( though form is a concern) and Mayank Markande. All of them can prove to be wicket-taking options in the midle-overs.
  3. Tewatia and Riyan Parag are seasoned T20 specialists by now and RR will rely on them to finish games.
  4. The addition of Morris is invaluable to the side as he can bowl overs in the death and swing the bat from ball one.

Weaknesses : –

  1. The absence of Jofra Archer is a huge loss for a side that already struggles with a dearth of bowlers available to bowl in the powerplay.
  2. No clarity over Buttler and Stokes’ batting slot. If either of them open the innings it leaves a middle-order that can be exposed.
  3. Not a single specialist finger spinner in the squad.
  4. Their recent IPL performances are not very inspiring for them to look back on.
Image courtesy: Rajasthan Royals/ Twitter

Team Combination :-

Jofra Archer will not be a part of the squad for the first few matches and is unlikely to feature in the rest of the tournament as well. Mustafizur Rahman may miss Rajasthan’s first two games because he will be completing the quarantine period during that time. Let us look at their probable XI.

Case 1 – Ben Stokes to open the innings supporting the logic that your best batsmen should ideally be playing the most number of deliveries.

  1. Ben Stokes 2. Jos Buttler 3. Sanju Samson 4. Mahipal Lomror 5. Riyan Parag 6. Shivam Dube 7. Rahul Tewatia 8 Chris Morris 9. Shreyas Gopal 10. Kartik Tyagi 11. Jaidev Unadkat.

Case 2 – Ben Stokes to bat in the middle-order to provide for some stability.

  1. Jaiswal/Rawat 2. Jos Buttler 3. Sanju Samson 4. Ben Stokes 5. Riyan Parag 6. Shivam Dube 7. Rahul Tewatia 8. Chris Morris 9. Shreyas Gopal 10. Kartik Tyagi 11. Jaidev Unadkat.

In the absence of Archer and Mustafizur (first 2 matches), Unadkat will remain one of the front-runners to grab the position followed by Andrew Tye. But after Mustafizur is available, Jaidev might have to be replaced by him.

Keys to Success :-

  1. One phrase for Samson – ” Adding method to the madness.” Show temperament.
  2. Morris to bowl well in the death.
  3. Kartik Tyagi and Unadkat to not leak runs in the powerplay.
  4. Riyan Parag, Tewatia and Shivam Dube to add the final flourish at the end of an innings.

Possible Finish : –

7th or 8th on the table.

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