Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has said that the Rajasthan Royals (RR) have assembled an impressive bowling lineup for IPL 2025 as well. However, he added that the lack of proper backups could harm them. The Royals spent ₹79 crore to retain six players, Sandeep Sharma (₹4 crore) being the only bowler among them, ahead of the auction as well. They also spent ₹40.70 crore to buy 14 more players, including Jofra Archer (₹12.50 crore), to assemble a 20-member squad as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “If I see the fast bowling, the first XI or XII looks very good because you have got Sandeep Sharma and Jofra Archer. Then you have got a good bowler in Tushar Deshpande, who was with Chennai earlier and had picked up a lot of wickets. Then you have Akash Madhwal. You can use Shubham Dubey and Madhwal as Impact players.”
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“So you have Sandeep Sharma, Akash Madhwal, Tushar Deshpande, Jofra Archer, Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana, plus a little bit of Riyan Parag. So the bowling looks complete, but there is nothing outside the 12. Backup is absolutely unavailable. They are going with extremely limited backups, and there is a backup problem for all slots. Let’s be fair, they are not alone. Many teams have backup problems this time, but this team might feel the pinch a little more because the chances of Sandeep Sharma, Akash Madhwal and Tushar Deshpande all having a good season are up in the air,” he again shared.
In the same video, Aakash Chopra also added that the Rajasthan Royals don’t have an overseas batting backup for Shimron Hetmyer either as well.
“Another problem is that there is no backup for Shimron Hetmyer. At times, you don’t have a good backup, but what will you do if you don’t have one at all? They didn’t buy anyone. Sherfane Rutherford and Rovman Powell were there, and there were plenty of other options available. They might have got someone for ₹75 lakh but they didn’t buy anyone,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
