Rajasthan Royals team 2023: Rajasthan will arrive at the IPL 2023 auction with a budget of INR 13.2 crore. They can buy up to nine cricketers, of whom at most four can be overseas.

In 2022, Rajasthan had a complete overhaul of their team structure. They got together two quality Indian spinners – R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal – and were rewarded handsomely for that. At the top, Jos Buttler sometimes began cautiously, but such is ability to accelerate that he finished with a strike rate of 149 and won the Orange Cap. The strategy of deploying the team’s main hitter as an anchor who would switch gears at will was crucial in their route to the final.

Ahead of this season’s auctions, they released Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jimmy Neesham, Rassie van der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell, Karun Nair, Anunay Singh, Corbin Bosch, Shubham Garhwal, and Tejas Baroka.

Rajasthan Royals team in IPL 2023

Strengths

Ashwin and Chahal’s dominance in the middle overs were pivotal to Rajasthan’s run in 2022, but the fast bowlers – Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Obed McCoy, and Kuldeep Sen were just as crucial. In Navdeep Saini, they have a reasonable backup.

Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag make a formidable unit of hitters. Towering above them in stature is Buttler, prepared to assume any role – and excel at it – depending on the scenario.

Weaknesses

Rajasthan’s hitters-and-bowlers structure, while reasonable in theory, fell short because they did not have enough of the former. As a result, they ended up playing Mitchell, van der Dussen, and Nair, none of whom came off. They released all three (but retained Devdutt Padikkal, who did better than them) and are left with no strong replacement batter.

Rajasthan’s batter do not bowl (barring Parag, who bowled only four overs). And with the exception of Ashwin, their bowlers do not bat. Having released Neesham and Coulter-Nile, they are left without all-rounders. Unfortunately, they have too many slots to fill, with too little money. Worse, if they pick Buttler, Boult, and Hetmyer in their XI, their fourth overseas cricketer can be either a hitter or an all-rounder.

But then, what is Rajasthan Royals without inexpensive yet efficient buys?

Likely buys

Given their budget, they are likely to lose the bid for Ben Stokes, Sam Curran, Cam Green, so Jason Holder, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi, or George Garton might be better bets, while Dasun Shanaka and David Wiese are worth a pint. Of Indian all-rounders, Ashwin Das (Madhya Pradesh) and Sanvir Singh (Punjab) are reasonable options.

With an established opening pair in Buttler and Jaiswal (and Padikkal and Samson ready to come up the order) in the squad, Rajasthan may not opt for Jason Roy, while Phil Salt or Rilee Rossouw (INR 2 crore each) may be expensive. They may focus on getting one of Will Jacks, Harry Brook, and Heinrich Klaasen instead. Among Indians, perhaps the best bet are Shashank Singh, Priyam Garg (both released by Sunrisers Hyderabad) and Samarth Vyas (Saurashtra).

Rajasthan Royals squad: Full team list ahead of IPL 2023 auction

Overseas players underlined.

Sanju Samson (c), Jos Buttler, Prasidh Krishna, Shimron Hetmyer, Trent Boult, Devdutt Padikkal, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldip Yadav.

Rajasthan Royals team 2023 purse: INR 13.2 crore. Slots remaining: Nine (four overseas)