Hyderabad: Rajasthan Royals have so far had a rollercoaster ride in the Indian Premier League. After a beautiful entry-level season in 2008, where they won the trophy against all odds under the captaincy of Shane Warne, the Royals fail to repeat the show. With the new season starting on April 9, the franchise is giving its hope to South Africa’s versatile Chris Morris, for whom they raised a record price of 16.5 million in the mini-auctions last month.
That price made him the most expensive player in the history of IPL auctions. They surprised everyone by abandoning their captain and former Australian captain, Steve Smith. They gave the leadership role to the young Sanju Samson. However, the Royals, who have only entered the play-offs three times, suffered a huge blow before the start of the season.
Their leading bowler Jofra Archer, who was the most valuable player last season, where Royals were down, injured his elbow during the limited series against India and he will miss the start of the season. There is no clarity on when he will be available to them. The franchise will therefore depend on Morris to deliver the goods and get its price tag done right.
They had a great start last season and won their first two games. From there, however, their journey south declined. They scored just six wins to finish with the wooden spoon. But there were some brilliant artists on the way. They found new heroes in Rahul Tewatia and Riyan Parag who became overnight sensations.
Their chances in the new season will cling to the performances of their foreign players such as Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, probably the best versatile player in the world and Morris. It will be interesting to see how Samson handles the new responsibility of leading the party. But he had a lot of experience in Buttler, Stokes, Morris, who could come to his rescue in hours of need.
Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman has been approved by the Bangladesh Cricket Board NOC and will also be available in the bowling division with Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat. There is no doubt that Royals have the firepower in their ranks. But many will depend on how consistently their famous foreign group performs. The franchise has a new director of cricket in the highly successful Sri Lankan player Kumar Sangakkara.
Source: Telangana Today