Every IPL Team plays it’s opponent twice in the competition, once at home ground and once away. Each Team tries its best to make the maximum use of home conditions and strategies accordingly. Winning most home matches and trying best for a few away wins have been a standard strategy in the IPL. In this series, we look at each team and its relationship with its home venue and its likely strategy this year. 

This IPL will be special for Rajasthan Royals (RR). The fact that not only the team is back in the competition but their home ground also makes a return in the IPL. The Royals team was suspended from the IPL for the last two years under the charges of corruption. The Sawai Mansingh Stadium of Jaipur was also not allowed to host an IPL match after the 2013 season.

The stadium was inaugurated in the year 1987 when it hosted its only Test which was played between India and Pakistan with Pakistan’s president in attendance. It has hosted a total of 19 ODIs also, a few of which have been memorable. MS Dhoni’s famous innings of 183 and Virat Kohli’s fastest Indian ODI century in the pursuit of 359 runs also occurred at the Jaipur Stadium.

RR Record at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium  (All Seasons)

*- In 2010, Rajasthan Royals played three of their home matches at Ahmedabad.

In the maiden year, under the brilliant cricket tactician Shane Warne, Rajasthan team reached new heights of glory and clinched the inaugural trophy against all odds with a team that did not boast of any superstars. In the first season, Rajasthan made the optimal use of home conditions and was undefeated at the venue.

Also Read: IPL 2018 Preview: Rajasthan Royals – The Return of Majesty

Before parting their ways with the home ground, Rajasthan produced another sterling performance under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid and won all their eight home matches. They finished third in the group stage for that IPL. Since then, this is will be the first season for RR at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

Pitch Condition:

Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium is one of the rare entity in India as it often proves helpful for the fast bowlers. In 2012-13 though it was a little erratic and helped the spinners also. Batting wise, it is a good pitch to bat on as evident by the 2013 India-Australia series.

For IPL 2018:

The composition that Rajasthan Royals have this year suggests a clear strategy for them to succeed at this ground. They have to prepare a green track at  Jaipur because a) they do not have a world-class spinner in the team b) they have lots of medium pace bowlers as their front-end attack. Apart from these, their batting is also composed of batsmen who are more comfortable playing against pace than spin. It will be really interesting to see if Rajasthan can pull off their ‘ground plan’ this season.