Rajasthan Royals Overview
Rajasthan Royals had a just about managed to make it to the playoff round after finishing just 2 points above Mumbai Indians who had a superior net run rate. However, in the playoffs against Kolkata Knight Riders, RR couldn’t manage to chase down the target of 170, even after having 6 wickets in hand and two established batsman on the crease. That highlighted an important shortcoming in their lineup – lack of firepower. Another bug that they faced was a leaky bowling attack.
Fast forward 6 months and Royals decided to completely overhaul the squad, releasing as many as 10 players in the transfer window. The massive exodus saw the Rajasthan team amass just over ₹20 crores in their kitty going into the 2019 IPL Auctions.
The biggest highlight of the auction was Royals’ stunning bidding for Jaydev Unadkat, whom they had released just a month ago. He had been bought for an astronomical price of ₹11.50 crores by the same team who was now bidding fiercely for him. In the auctions, Royals seemed like the clear winners when the price stood at ₹ 5 crores.
However, the entry of Chennai Super Kings, who were in for an Indian pacer themselves, made the bidding war ugly. It only culminated after the price went beyond CSK’s limited purse. Nonetheless, by that time, Unadkat had once again become the highest player in IPL auctions.
It may seem cynical on the Royals’ part to sign a player that they just released, but look closely and you would find that they indeed saved a lot of money (₹3 cr excluding the retaining fee) on a player whose talent they already knew.
Pace additions continued to be on the Royals’ mind, with the likes of Oshane Thomas and Varun Aaron being bought for a total of ₹ 3.5 crores. That does make for an impressive pace attack when you add Ben Stokes to the equation. RR also showed interested untested international players like Ashton Turner and Liam Livingstone to make up for the loss of Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, and Ben Stokes, who could all leave late in the IPl season.
Squad Strength: 25
Players bought in the auction: 9
Purse Unspent: Rs 7.15 Crore
Complete Squad
| Batsmen | Allrounders | Spinners | Pacers |
| Manan Vohra* | Riyan Parag* | Ish Sodhi | Oshane Thomas* |
| Ajinkya Rahane | Ashton Turner* | M Lomror | Varun Aaron* |
| Sanju Samson (wk) | S Ranjane* | Jaydev Unadkat* | |
| Aryaman Birla | L Livingstone* | Dhawal Kulkarni | |
| Prashant Chopra | Shashank Singh* | S. Midhun | |
| Rahul Tripathi | K Gowtham | ||
| Steven Smith | Shreyas Gopal | ||
| Jos Buttler (wk) | Stuart Binny | ||
| Ben Stokes | |||
| Jofra Archer |
* represents newly signed players
Possible Starting XI: Manan Vohra, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Rahul Tripathi, Steven Smith, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Ish Sodhi, Oshane Thomas, Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Aaron.
Media Reaction
.@rajasthanroyals continued with their plan of small ?, big results tonight in #AuctionOnStar.
VIVO #IPLAuction picks of the day:
Oshane Thomas
Varun Aaron
Jaydev Unadkat
Riyan Parag
Ashton Turner
Manan Vohra
Shubham Ranjane
Liam Livingstone
Shashank Singh— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 18, 2018
Great day at #IPLAuction2019. Very happy with the squad and can’t wait for the tournament!! #rajasthanroyals #JoinTheFamily pic.twitter.com/h7PVZYI9CI
— Jake Lush McCrum (@JakeLushMcCrum) December 18, 2018
#IPLAuction
Even after having a huge budget, when Rajasthan Royals still bought Jaidev Unadkat for 8.4 crores : pic.twitter.com/ULuvvUuEn4— Akshit Sharma (@ShrmaGka_Ladka) December 19, 2018
*Rajasthan royals buys Jaydev Unadkat for INR 8.4 Crore*
Money : pic.twitter.com/5L1S0j1w8d
— MEMES IN INDIA (@MEMES_IN_INDIA) December 19, 2018
Rajasthan royals after the auctions#IPLAuction2019 #IPL2019 #IPLAuctions pic.twitter.com/wbLViExLDR
— Cricpanti (@cricpanti) December 19, 2018
