Rajasthan Royals in IPL - An Overview

Since the IPL began, this team was touted as underdogs, David taking on Goliath kind of a battle with superior teams having star-studded batting and bowling line-ups. Unfazed with all the acrimony, the team beat all the odds and went on to win the inaugral IPL trophy with little known 'pawns' and an 'aged king' leading the team. Yes, you have guessed it right, the team is Rajasthan Royals. 

Owned and chaired by Manoj Badale, other investors in Rajasthan Royals include Lachlan Murdoch, Aditya S Chellaram, Suresh Chellaram, Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra. The team has a history of unearthing exiting talent and while other teams gun for star names in their line-up, the Royals have always laid emphasis on uncapped players and finding talent of all ages, be it Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Sanju Samson or veterans like Pravin Tambe and Brad Hogg. 

In 2008, they had the legendary Shane Warne who inspired them to a victory when they were the most under rated team in the league. He brought out players like Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja and Shane Watson who were then still not the finished product that they are perhaps at the moment. Inspired by collective performances of the players, the team defeated Delhi Daredevils by 105 runs in the semi-finals and edged past Chennai Super Kings in the finals to lift the maiden IPL trophy. Shane Watson was named the Player of the Tournament, while Sohail Tanvir was the highest wicket taker.

However, ever since their first win, the team faded away in the remaining seasons. In 2009, the tournament played in South Africa, the team sans Shane Watson and Sohail Tanvir failed to put up consistent performances and could only win 6 of their 14 matches and were placed sixth.

Come 2010, the Royals were determined to prove that the win in 2008 was not a fluke, but this time except a few eye-cathching performances, success eluded them. The highlight of this edition was Yusuf Pathan's whirlwind century off 37 balls against Mumbai Indians, though it came in a losing cause. But they tapered away in the fag end of the tournament and lost back to back matches and were placed seventh.

In the 2011 edition, they bought some impact players like Paul Collingwood, Ross Taylor, Shaun Tait, Johan Botha and Rahul Dravid. The tournament was the final one for Shane Warne as the Rajasthan Royals captain and coach. However, the team courted controversy when they were temporarily ejected of the league due to unreported ownership changes. But after High Court order they were reinstated. But it brought no changes to their fortunes and were placed sixth.

In 2012, Rahul Dravid took charge at the helm and looked to change the team's drastic fortunes. But again inconsistent performances let them down badly and this time they managed to win only seven of their sixteen matches. Dravid received much flak for his defensive captaincy and batting.

In the 2013 IPL, the team was rocked by spot-fixing charges with three players Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila arrested from Mumbai by Delhi Police along with eleven bookies. Later BCCI suspended the three players and they have been put to jail since. The arrest opened up a can of worms and brought into limelight the betting nexus which involved Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra and N.Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan. However, the team this time managed to enter the play-offs and finshed third.

In 2014, the team could not go past the group-stage and their home matches were held  at Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad due to a dispute between RCA and BCCI officials. Rahul Dravid took the role of being the mentor of the team and was captained by Shane Watson. Though good performances by Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson won them a few matches, it was not enough to take them through. 

Rajasthan Royals team for IPL 2015:

Dhawal Kulkarni, Pravin Tamb, Karun Nair, Dishank Yagnik, Vikramjeet Malik, Rahul Tewatia, Amit Mishra, Deepak Hooda, Rajat Bhatia, Abhishek Nayyar, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Ajinkya Rahane, Barinder Singh Saran, Dinesh Salunkhe, Sagar Trivedi, Pardeep Sahu, Shane Watson, James Faulkner, Steve Smith, Ben Cutting, Kane Richardson, Tim Southee, Chris Morris, Juan Theron

Abhishek (CRICKETNMORE)