Rajasthan Royals have plenty of quality in their lineup heading into the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League. Having finished seventh, eighth and seventh respectively in the last three seasons, RR brought in some big names at the mega auction and will be hoping for a change in fortune this time around.

Rajasthan had retained skipper Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal before the auction and then bolstered the squad by adding the likes of Prasidh Krishna, Shimron Hetmyer, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal and Trent Boult.

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History at the tournament

RR's results in every IPL season

Season League stage finish Playoff result 
IPL 2008  1st  Winners 
IPL 2009  6th  –– 
IPL 2010  7th  –– 
IPL 2011  6th out of 10  –– 
IPL 2012  7th out of 9  –– 
IPL 2013  3rd out of 9  Won Eliminator, Lost Qualifier 2
IPL 2014  5th  –– 
IPL 2015  4th  Lost in the Eliminator  
IPL 2016  Suspended  –– 
IPL 2017  Suspended 
IPL 2018  4th  Lost in the Eliminator  
IPL 2019  7th  –– 
IPL 2020  8th  ––
IPL 2021 7th ––

Squad

Rajasthan Royals will have a full strength squad heading into their first match of the tournament. South Africa batter Rassie van der Dussen was on national duty till last week but he too will be available for the opener.

IPL Auction 2022, Rajasthan Royals review: Possible best XI, strengths and weaknesses

Full squad: Sanju Samson (c), Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ashwin Ravichandran, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell.

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Most Valuable Player

Buttler hasn’t been at his best in recent times but if the England batter does get going, RR are sure to keep moving ahead on the points table. His availability for the playoffs, should RR get there, remains to be seen due to the international calendar, but Buttler can surely play a big role in helping the team earn that elusive ‘Q’ next to their name. He will most likely open the batting again and will be to make a mark quickly.

Uncapped Indian to watch out for

Riyan Parag has featured in three IPL seasons and played a number of matches for Rajasthan Royals, but the right-handed middle order batter has struggled to find consistency. The franchise bid Rs 3.8 crore to retain and a lot will be expected from him this time around. He has been amongst the runs for Assam in domestic cricket this season and with RR lacking a bit of firepower in the lower middle order, now would be a good time for the 20-year-old to step up.

Quotes corner

Sanju Samson: “We definitely had a lot of learning from the last 2-3 seasons. We discussed and worked on a few options and we got a really very good team in the auction. We have a lot of Indian and international strength in our team. It’s a very long tournament. We need to understand the mindset and the fitness and form of all players. But we have enough options to play around. I think this format has to be played with lot of fearless mindset and that sort of characters are there in this team this year. So we would just like to go out there and express ourselves.”

Fixtures

Teams to play twice: MI, KKR, DC, LSG, RCB
Teams to play once: CSK, SRH, PBKS, GT

Rajasthan Royals schedule for IPL 2022

Day  Date  Match  Time  Venue 
Tue  29-03-22  SRH vs RR  7:30 PM  MCA Stadium, Pune 
Sat  02-04-22  MI vs RR  3:30 PM  DY Patil Stadium 
Tue  05-04-22  RR vs RCB  7:30 PM  Wankhede Stadium 
Sun  10-04-22  RR vs LSG  7:30 PM  Wankhede Stadium 
Thu  14-04-22  RR vs GT  7:30 PM  DY Patil Stadium 
Mon  18-04-22  RR vs KKR  7:30 PM  Brabourne - CCI 
Fri  22-04-22  DC vs RR  7:30 PM  MCA Stadium, Pune 
Tue  26-04-22  RCB vs RR  7:30 PM  MCA Stadium, Pune 
Sat  30-04-22  RR vs MI  7:30 PM  DY Patil Stadium 
Mon  02-05-22  KKR vs RR  7:30 PM  Wankhede Stadium 
Sat  07-05-22  PBKS vs RR  3:30 PM  Wankhede Stadium 
Wed  11-05-22  RR vs DC  7:30 PM  DY Patil Stadium 
Sun  15-05-22  LSG vs RR  7:30 PM  Brabourne - CCI 
Fri  20-05-22  RR vs CSK  7:30 PM  Brabourne - CCI