Despite being the champions in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rajasthan Royals (RR) have, over the years, emerged as the team with a lower winning ratio as compared to some of the successful teams. They do have managed to reach the playoffs three times, but they never gave the confidence of reaching the final in those seasons.
In a nutshell, Rajasthan has been the team that has been known for punching above their weight class, but they have also crumbled under pressure against the big names. With the IPL 2020 around the corner, there are fresh expectations from them, but their fans also clearly know what to expect and whatnot.
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With their training sessions ahead of IPL 2020 in full swing, here we make an attempt of analyzing the RR squad and have a look at how it shapes up for the much-awaited return of top-level cricket. Here are the strengths and weaknesses of the Rajasthan Royals ahead of IPL 2020.
RR – Strengths
#1 Balance
Despite the fact that Rajasthan doesn’t have one of the best batting or bowling units, but just seems to have the right combination of players to do the job. Of course, they witness some of the seasoned campaigners like Jos Buttler, Steve Smith, and David Miller, but the core of the team lies in its youngsters. Yashaswi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, and Kartik Tyagi — all products of U-19 World Cups, will be looking to put their best foot forward for RR and win some matches for their side.
RCB – Weaknesses
#1 Overseas Reliance
Despite having some match-winners, Rajasthan Royals have a lot of problems to deal with as the even before the start of the tournament. Heavily reliant on English and Australian stars, the team might miss their presence in the first few matches, since players from both the teams are currently playing a series in England. To top it all, there is still no clarity as to when Ben Stokes will join the team.
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He is in New Zealand currently, with his family, due to his ailing father. That means that Rajasthan will be sans their regular skipper — Steve Smith — in these matches. It will be interesting to see who leads the side in his absence.
#2 Lack of Firepower in Bowling
Apart from that, their bowling unit consists of some good overseas cricketers but doesn’t instill the confidence of a champion bowling side. Jofra Archer, Andrew Tye, Varun Aaron, and Jaydev Unadkat might be good on their day, but the attack does lack some firepower.
Rajasthan Royals IPL 2020 Squad:
David Miller, Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, Robin Uthappa, Shashank Singh, Steven Smith, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ben Stokes, Mahipal Lomror, Shreyas Gopal, Tom Curran, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Akash Singh, Andrew Tye, Aniruddha Joshi, Ankit Rajpoot, Jaydev Unadkat, Jofra Archer, Kartik Tyagi, Mayank Markande, Oshane Thomas, Rahul Tewatia, Varun Aaron
