Rajasthan Royals’ massive defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the 2025 IPL may turn out to be an indication of how their season may unravel.
Since they won the IPL in the inaugural season, Rajasthan Royals had their best cycle between 2022 and 2024, finishing second, fifth, and third in that order. This was obviously possible because they had one of the strongest units of the league during this phase. With only six cricketers to retain ahead of the 2025 mega auction, they had to make some harsh calls.
They retained captain Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, and – thanks to the “uncapped player” rule – Sandeep Sharma. The players they parted ways with included three massive names: Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, and Yuzvendra Chahal. And probably a fourth, in R Ashwin.
Letting Buttler go after a seven-year stint, however harsh, was perhaps understandable. Between the 2024 and 2025 seasons, Samson had established himself as an Indian T20I opener. If he paired with the incredibly talented Yashasvi Jaiswal, they did not need to invest in the expensive Buttler. Samson himself admitted that letting go of his vice-captain and one of his “closest friends” was “one of the most challenging decisions” for him.
These things happen in the IPL. With only six slots available, franchises move on from cricketers and vice versa. What Rajasthan did not do was find a batter, Indian or overseas, to replace him. They got Nitish Rana, Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, and Kunal Singh Rathore. Rana and Dubey, the best and most experienced of these, were not remotely close to Buttler’s stature.
But that was probably fine. Once Samson moved up the order, so could Dhruv Jurel, who had probably been batting one position too low all these years. With the Impact Player thrown in, Jaiswal, Samson, Rana, Riyan, Jurel, Hetmyer, Dubey are a unit of power hitters that should have, in theory, allowed RR to stack up their bowling attack with all-rounders bowling superstars.
Match 2, Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals
vs
- Ball by ball Over
Except, they did not. The lack of an all-rounder had plagued them in the previous cycle. They tried to address that by moving Ashwin up and down the order. They tried and rejected Jason Holder and Tanush Kotian. They kept Donovan Ferreira in the squad before releasing him.
This time, too, they did not address that. The one who came closest to fitting that bill was Wanindu Hasaranga (though he has 72 runs from 73 balls across 14 innings in the IPL). Even then, things did not look that bad. But then, RR also replaced Boult with Jofra Archer, a man who had impressed for them in the past. RR had finished last in 2020, but Archer had been named the Most Valuable Player that season.
Unfortunately, the post-injury Archer was a shadow of that breathtaking fast bowler. The record-breaking 4-0-76-0 might have been a one-off, but it is about one game: according to CricViz, he has had the worst bowling impact since the start of the 2024 Hundred. It is a steep decline from someone who, in his pre-injury phase, used to enjoy the stature of one of the finest bowlers in IPL history.
But we are digressing. RR also got Maheesh Theekshana, yet another spinner of great quality, from the auction. The problem was, their three bowling stars were all overseas cricketers. Having let Chahal and Ashwin go, the lone Indian spinner they got was left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya, who last played an IPL game in 2023.
Ideally, thus, they could have gone in with both Sri Lankan spinners along with Hetmyer and Archer (or another fast bowler). However, that would mean going in with an Indian-heavy seam unit. Sandeep, Tushar Deshpande, and Akash Madhwal are excellent options, but having any of them as the second-best fast bowler of an attack does not seem promising.
That meant that RR had to start with a second overseas fast bowler. Despite his experience, Fazalhaq Farooqi has seldom impressed on flat wickets. His six IPL wickets from eight games have come at 46 apiece, and he has gone for 9.74 an over. Kwena Maphaka, the South African wonderkid, has turned heads, but his two IPL games have yielded figures of 6-0-89-1.
That is the bowling selection pool for RR for this season. An out-of-form overseas spearhead; two overseas fast bowlers of varying experience who are yet to find their groove in the IPL; two overseas spinners fighting for one spot; and a decent-but-not-formidable Indian backup.
Whichever combination RR opted for was expected to be inadequate against the big-hitting Sunrisers Hyderabad batters on Saturday. All they could have done was to hope that their own power hitters would be up for the challenge. For that, they should ideally have extended their batting as far as possible. Instead, they dropped Hasaranga, their only all-rounder.
There was no shame in being pummelled by the steamrolling ogres of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Greater bowling attacks have faced and will face that fate. It is also unfair to write a team off after one defeat, however heavy. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an obvious solution to Rajasthan’s bowling woes this season.
Time and again their batters will have too many to chase or be expected to put up too many. While not an impossible task, it is an unreasonable expectation.
Seventeen years ago, when T20 cricket was still in its nascent stage, eyebrows had been raised around RR’s unexpected picks at the auction. However, as the season unfolded, it became evident that Shane Warne’s team had been ahead of the times with their selection.
This time, unfortunately, there is little reason to be optimistic.
