Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has picked the Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) ‘promising’ Indian batting lineup as their biggest strength heading into IPL 2025. He added that the likes of Sanju Samson are the present and future of Indian cricket. However, RR retained four Indian batters – Samson (₹18 crore), Yashasvi Jaiswal (₹18 crore), Riyan Parag (₹14 crore) and Dhruv Jurel (₹14 crore) – ahead of the IPL 2025 auction as well. Shimron Hetmyer (₹11 crore) and Sandeep Sharma (₹4 crore) were their other two retentions as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “They have the Indian team’s present and future. Sanju Samson is T20’s present and future. Yashasvi Jaiswal is your present and future in Tests. Dhruv Jurel is the future. You can look towards Riyan Parag from that point of view. So the Indian batters they have are all very, very promising, and that is thumbs up with both hands. They are very good. They have little international experience, but they are primarily young. I won’t say they are inexperienced but they are not major superstars. All of them are hungry. They are all promising and young.”
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However, Aakash Chopra also stated that the Rajasthan Royals have two overseas spinners in Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga in their IPL 2025 squad.
“Apart from that, the spin-bowling department. I sometimes feel that you can go with two overseas spinners only if you have Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan in your team. That quality should be there. If that’s not the case, going with two overseas spinners is a difficult one. They have chosen two Sri Lankans. One is Maheesh Theekshana and the other is Wanindu Hasaranga. Some people may see it as a strength. I am trying to see it as a strength but I don’t feel it should be counted as a strength for the Rajasthan Royals. The ball turns on this ground and it’s a big ground. They used to have Ashwin and Chahal, but now they have two overseas spinners replacing them. They are asking for a bit too much,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
