JAIPUR: With a remaining purse of Rs 62 crore to be spent to fill 22 slots, the Rajasthan Royals will enter the IPL 2022 mega auction relatively more relaxed than many others.
In using the retention policy, the Jaipur-based franchise has ensured their top-three batsmen are essentially ready and importantly, they have in place the leader of the pack. Sanju Samson as the skipper along with Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal are RR’s retentions.
Their recent history, particularly post-ban, suggests the Royals are likely to spend a bomb on a couple of players, but not necessarily on established Indian stars. Their captain Samson’s words, ‘we are preparing our base for the next 5-6 years,’ back the possibility of on-the-rise and lesser-known names doning the pink jersey. It would be interesting to see if Royals’ obsession with English players will continue and this includes recuperating Jofra Archer, who was not considered for retention.
At the time of retention, Royals director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara had said, “We did everything to ascertain the nature of the injury, the recovery period, his ability to come back. Once all of these dynamics come into play, it’s very difficult to go into an auction with too many questions in our minds.”
But given the mercurial nature of the IPL auctions, there is a good chance of RR trying to get the pacer, who will be a part of the accelerated bidding, back into their fold. Given a set of limitations that will come along with 26-year-old Archer, including he will not be available for the 2022 season and his replacement will not be given, there is a chance of him not attracting a big amount, which he easily would have otherwise.
19 from Rajasthan: There are 19 players from Rajasthan in the auction list. Going by the recent performances, fast bowler Deepak Chahar will be the most sought-after player and is likely to fetch a massive deal.
Players from state: Deepak Chahar, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Hooda, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Khaleel Ahmed, Mahipal Lomror, Akash Singh, Tanveer Ul-Haq, Manav Suthar, Abhijeet Tomar, Aniket Choudhary, Shubham Sharma, Ashok Sharma, Ravi Sharma, Tajinder Singh Dhillon, Shubham Garhwal, Pushpendra Singh Rathore, Sahil Dhiwan and Arjit Gupta.
