IPL 2021, Team Preview: Rajasthan Royals Look To Bury The Ghosts Of 2020

Rajasthan Royals (RR) have had a poor last two seasons in the Indian Premier League (IPL). While they finished seventh in 2019, they ended eighth in the 2020 season. This time though they have tried t

The only problem will be that with Stokes, Buttler, Morris, and Archer using up the four slots reserved for overseas cricketers, it will be hard to fit in Rahman. Kumar Sangakkara, the director of cricket operations at RR, has made it clear that Rahman will be played only in the absence of Morris or Archer.

"The focus for us at the auction was on bowlers," an RR official had told IANS before the auction. A lot of focus will be on how the combination of Kumar Sangakkara and new captain Sanju Samson works.

Having Samson as the captain will serve RR well since he is no longer in the scheme of things for the Indian team and can fully focus on leading his franchise. Royals have also bought Shivam Dube and his job will mainly be with the bat as Sangakkara has clarified.

Last season, RR struggled because they just didn't know how to use both Stokes and Buttler. They could not slot them together at the top of the order since it affected their batting in the final overs.

With the presence of big-hitters like South Africans Morris, David Miller, and India international Dube, they can now push the England duo to the top of the batting order and focus on setting up big totals.

The Jaipur franchise has won only one title and that was way back in 2008, the inaugural edition, under the captaincy of Shane Warne.

Players' squad:

Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Kartik Tyagi, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, David Miller, Manan Vohra, Robin Uthappa, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, KC Cariappa, Liam Livingstone, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh.

Support staff:
Kumar Sangakkara (director of cricket operations), Amol Muzumdar (batting coach), Sairaj Bahutule (bowling coach), Dishant Yagnik (fielding coach), Trevor Penney (assistant coach), John Gloster (physiotherapist), Ish Sodhi (spin bowling consultant), Anuja Dalvi (assistant physiotherapist), Panish Shetty (analyst).