After a very long time, Rajasthan Royals qualified for the finals. It was a difficult year for them because their first captain and inspiring leader, Shane Warne, passed away a couple of months ago. Hence, they wanted to win the tournament for him. A noble thought ofcourse. This is a review of Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2022.
After years of disappointment, the Royals turned things around spectacularly. The seeds of such a turnaround were planted right at the auction itself. The management concentrated on spending their purse on players who have had experience at the highest level. Evidently, it paid off quite well. During the league phase, they won 9 of the 14 games and was placed 2nd based on superior NRR when compared to Lucknow Supergiants.
RR’s Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara, said, “At the auction table, we spent 90-95% of our purse on putting together our first XI. We worked hard on data to work on the players we wanted. We put emphasis on experience at the moment.” He continued, “we have a spattering of youngsters who will become stars later, but our first XI has a strong share of seasoned internationals.
“Full credit to Giles Lindsay, our analyst, Zubin Barucha and the rest of the staff. Wins don’t just happen. It takes a lot of planning, hard work, execution on the field,” he added.
Teams like RCB & Delhi Capitals will do well do learn the strategy adopted by Rajasthan once the next round of auctions is announced. Let us remember that Rajasthan finished among the bottom couple of teams in the last three seasons.
The standout performer
Jos Buttler, without any shadow of a doubt. His performance in the IPL was par excellence. Four hundreds over the course of one tournament was an extraordinary achievement. Especially, his hundred in the 2nd qualifier was beautifully paced. It seemed that he wanted to prove if not to everyone atleast to himself that he can play the Aussie bowlers, Hazlewood quite well after a disastrous and disappointing Ashes.
Buttler was under some sort of pressure before the tournament. It wasn’t because of his earlier performance in IPL but because of the lean run that he endured as part of the England team. Ultimately, he was dropped from the England team itself. If Buttler had felt being under the microscope, he would not have been wrong. Being dropped from your national team will definitely play on your mind. It is extremely tough to motivate oneself from such despair but Buttler did and did in a grand fashion.
Chahal’s wonderful form
RCB may or may not have retained him but Chahal asked the franchise to release him so that he can try his luck in the open auction. It fetched him a good return of more than 6CR. It is unlikely RCB would have been willing to shell out that much funds on him.
In his new franchise, Chahal formed a successful combination with Ashwin. 27 wickets at an economy rate of 7.8 are good by any standards. He was the only bowler to take a hattrick and one of the three bowlers to return a 5-fer. Before the start of the finals, he needed one wicket to go past the RCB bowler, Hasaranga to win the purple cap which he accomplished with the wicket of Pandya. The icing on the cake for Chahal was the recall into the Indian team for the South African series. He could not have wished for more.
Ashwin’s reinvigoration
Ashwin was used by Rajasthan in a different way. No other franchise has thus far made use of his batting abilities but he was often sent up the order. He responded with a match winning innings against CSK. However, it was his bowling that led the team down. As usual, when the pitch is flat, he struggles. This is what happened in the playoffs. The pitches at Eden Gardens and at Ahmedabad were flat thereby helping the batsmen pile on the runs. The pitches challenged Ashwin and he did not come out well. 10 runs per over including the 1st qualifier, Ashwin must have done a bit more than that.
Sangakkara was absolutely spot-on when he said, “Ash (Ashwin) has done a great job for us. And even for Ash, being a legend in terms of what he has achieved on the cricketing pitch, again even for him there will be lots of thinking and improvements to do especially with his off-spin and bowl more of it,”
I have always said this. What is the point of having far too many variations when the opponent’s number 11 batsman is able to pick you up easily on non-turning pitches? This is exactly what Sangakkara meant indirectly.
Bowling attack
The experience of Trent Boult and the youthful exuberance of Prasidh Krishna were the gains for Rajasthan this season on the bowling front. Prasidh was especially impressed with his pace and bounce. He looks like someone who can contribute to Indian cricket for a very longtime. If only Ashwin can contribute on all surfaces, with Chahal, Rajasthan can boast of a complete bowling attack. To find out, we will have to wait for the next season.
The batting indifference
Jos Buttler was ofcourse outstanding but Rajasthan will need more from their Indian batters. Sanju Samson, the captain, was good in patches but threw his wicket away at the most inopportune moments. No team can win with just one batsman scoring runs however good he maybe. Devdutt Padikkal was absolutely outstanding for RCB during the last IPL. He had a 100 to boot but this time around, he fell way short of expectations. Perhaps, he wasn’t able to find his rhythm by moving down the order. A move up the order to partner Buttler might just rejuvenate him next time around. Riyan Parag and Jaisval too were inconsistent. Jaisval’s assault on Siraj in the 2nd qualifier put to rest any hopes of RCB winning the game but apart from that, he found the going tough.
Conclusion to review of Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2022
They did well after so many years but with a little bit of effort from the remaining batsmen, they could have even won the tournament.
IPL stories
Other topics about BCCI