The comeback Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Rajasthan Royals (RR) team is back in the IPL after getting banned for a gap of two years. After being suspended for the charges of match-fixing and corruption, the Jaipur-based franchise created headlines at the 2018 Auction when they thrashed their usual strategy of lying low and broke the bank to hire some big names in the game.

Despite the fact that the Rajasthan team management bought the two highest bids of IPL 2018 auctions i.e., Ben Stokes for ₹12 crores and Jaydev Undakat for ₹11.5 crores, there are certain loopholes in their current squad. In comparison to their balanced squad in 2015, RR will certainly be missing the services of key players who played a crucial role in the victories of the team.

Also read: Rajasthan Royals – The Return of Majesty

In 2018, either the some of the crucial cogs Royals were already been included in some other franchise due to the two-year ban. In an attempt to figure out the missing gems of RR, one can surely say that they will miss players like Shane Watson, Barinder Sran, Deepak Hooda, Chris Morris, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair.

During RR’s suspension, Sran, Hooda, and Cutting played for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), Nair and Morris played for Delhi Daredevils, while Watson played for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Barring Watson, who has become an old horse now, every other player played a crucial role for their respective teams in the last two seasons of IPL. 

In the winning campaign of SRH in 2016, Cutting played a knock of 15-ball 39 and took the momentum from the RCB in the final by helping his team to set a huge target of 209. Then again in the second innings, he bowled a brilliant spell of 2/25 as he picked crucial wickets of Chris Gayle and KL Rahul which stopped the flow of runs for RCB (In 2018, Ben will play for them). It was Sran who dismissed RCB skipper Virat Kohli (highest-scorer of 2016) in the finals. This year Sran will play for Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), Hooda for SRH and Cutting for Mumbai Indians (MI).

Also read: Shane Warne Comes Back To Rajasthan Royals

Although, Morris and Nair not been able to get their team even to the playoffs in last two seasons of IPL, they have been one of the consistent performers for DD and as a result of that DD even retained Chris Morris for IPL 2018. This year Nair will play for KXIP while Watson will play for Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Despite having such a well-thought-out IPL Auction strategy, the Rajasthan Royals management has left a gaping hole in the team. They do not have an experienced spinner. They had to bid astronomical price for K.Gowtham who is largely an unknown entity. This leaves Rajasthan with no choice but to prepare pace-friendly tracks at home and they are bound to suffer on away spinning tracks.

Rajasthan Royals’ squad for IPL 2018:

Ben Stokes, Jaydev Unadkat, Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, K Gowtham, Jos Buttler, Rahul Tripathi, D’Arcy Short, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Dhawal Kulkarni, Zahir Khan, Ben Laughlin, Stuart Binny, Dushmantha Chameera, Anureet Singh, Aryaman Birla, Midhun S, Shreyas Gopal, Prashant Chopra, Jatin Saxena, Ankit Sharma, Mahipal Lomror.