IPL 2022, Rajasthan Royals squad, fixtures and more: Sanju Samson and Co seek a change in fortune

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.

History at the tournament

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.

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