From being crowned the inaugural IPL champions, things haven’t really gone very smoothly for the Rajasthan Royals in the tournament. The team was involved in a controversial match-fixing case in 2013, which even resulted them in being banned from the tournament for 2 years. But even putting all of their off-field troubles aside, RR haven’t really been able to match their success from their freshman year.
They do have the opportunity to change that template this time around. Plus, there’s an even bigger motivation for the team this year in the fact that they can pay tribute to their first-ever captain, the legendary, late Shane Warne, by winning the trophy on the year of his untimely demise. And the one thing that RR will need to do to be able to achieve that is get their best playing XI onto the field.
So that’s exactly what we’ll be addressing today, as we look at the best-possible playing XI for the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2022.
The top-order
Yashaswi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal headline our iteration of the best playing XI for the Rajasthan Royals. Now that does leave out the explosive and hard-hitting Jos Buttler out of an opener’s spot; but our reasoning for going with the two southpaws ahead of Buttler is that neither Paddikal nor Jasiwal have a very glamorous record batting outside of the powerplay overs. As the most pedigreed batsman in RR’s lineup, Buttler should be more than suited to play at one down and be at his usual best.
In at number 4 will be the captain of this team, Sanju Samson. Once again, there is a case of opening with Sanju Samson to have a great deal of explosiveness at the top. But with two relatively young players at the top order, it seems very likely that the team will need an experienced batter to bat through the middle overs. So having the unencumbered explosiveness of Devdutt and Yashaswi at the top of the order, with 2 vastly experienced T20 campaigners in Buttler and Samson to back them up, seems to be the ideal option to start the playing XI with.
Backups available: Rassie van der Dussen, Karun Nair, Daryll Mitchell
The middle order
Rajasthan showed a great deal of initiative at reacquiring Riyan Parag, so it seems very likely that he will make it into RR’s starting XI. Also, given the challenging balance of the Rajasthan unit this time around, he will have to shoulder some added responsibility as a sixth or fifth bowling option.
In at number 6, we’ve gone with the hard-hitting Shimron Hetmyer. While it’s a bit lower than his preferred three-down batting position, Shimron’s role in his new IPL franchise will be that of an aggressive finisher. The fact that RR have a bunch of batsman who can stabilize the innings at the top order should allow Hettie to slot in as a sheer hitter of the ball, which seems to be one of the stronger aspects of his white-ball game.
Backups available: Dhruv Jurel, Anunay Singh, James Neesham, Shubham Garhwal
The bowling attack
This is something that we have alluded to in the past, but RR doesn’t seem to have the perfect balance of an all-rounder in their team. We have gone with Nathan Coulter-Nile as the designated number 7 batter, whose batting role will be that of a pinch hitter. But on the bowling front, he will have to shoulder a good deal of RR’s death bowling responsibilities.
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Thankfully, RR do have a star-studded bowling attack to make up for the impediment they face with accommodating a gun all-rounder in the team. Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal pick themselves as the team’s leading spinners, while Coulter Nile, Trent Boult, and Prasidh Krishna will shepherd the team’s fast-bowling duties. Among the five of them, the team has a good mix of defensive and attacking bowlers who can bowl at different stages of the innings, which should make RR one of the better bowling teams of this season.
Backups available: Obed McCoy, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Kuldip Yadav, Kuldeep Sen, Tejas Baroka.
RR’s Best Starting XI For IPL 2022: Devdutt Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Nathan Coulter Nile, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna