Rajasthan Royals will be stepping in IPL 2025 as one of the strongest contenders for a place in the playoffs. Over the years, the inaugural champions have been led by numerous captains but in wicketkeeper Sanju Samson, they have a found a true match-winner. Samson, who donned the captain’s hat in 2021, has led Rajasthan to the playoffs twice, which includes one final appearance against Gujarat Titans in 2022. For IPL 2025, RR retained Samson as their skipper, along with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Sandeep Sharma, and Shimron Hetmyer.
During the auction, RR spent a whopping price to rope in the likes of Nitish Rana, Jofra Archer, Wanindu Hasaranga, and others.
Strengths: The biggest strength of RR in IPL 2025 is their batting order, which includes the likes of Samson, Jaiswal, Parag, Shubham Dubey, Jurel, etc. After his heroics for India in the T20Is in 2024, Samson is expected to open the proceedings with Jaiswal and the duo can create a lot of trouble for the oppositions bowlers. Apart from them, Parag showed his true mettle in 2024 and will aim to play many more big knocks for RR in the upcoming season.
Weakness: During the auction, RR played strategically but ended up losing the big names like Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Ravichandran Ashwin. Though they have included Maheesh Theekshana and Hasaranga as their spinners but Chahal and Ashwin’s absence is going to haunt them. Apart from this, their squad also does not have any proper overseas batter.
Opportunity: IPL 2025 can be a make it or break it year for pacer Jofra Archer, whose career has been marred with injuries. Archer began his IPL career with RR in 2018 and was a crucial part of their bowling lineup, before he was released in 2022. Apart from Archer, 13-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who was bought at a whopping sum of Rs 1.1 crore, will also look to leave a mark in the IPL.
Threats: Over the years, RR have been inconsistent with their performance and that has been the root cause of their failure. This year too, the factor of inconsistency can trouble RR but with Rahul Dravid coming-in as the head coach, they will aim to battle it out positively.
Rajasthan Royals’ Strongest XI: Sanju Samson (c & wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Nitish Rana, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Jofra Archer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Sandeep Sharma, Maheesh Theekshana, Akash Madhwal.
Impact Players: Shubham Dubey, Yuddhvir Singh Charak.
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