IPL 2020 – Season Review: Rajasthan Royals – Magical highs, disappointing lows
Rajasthan Royals began the 2020 edition of the IPL while missing two of their most important players. Jos Buttler missed the first game due to quarantine and Ben Stokes had to miss the first 6 games due to personal reasons. RR’s squad seemed a bit out of place on paper. They didn’t seem to have any highly experienced and an in-form Indian player. Despite that, they won their first 2 games. It looked as though they were going to outperform with the squad they had once again.
However, the chinks in their armour started to get exposed slowly and in no time, they had lost 4 games on the trot. They did manage to make a comeback of sorts in the last few games, but eventually, it turned out to be too huge a mountain to climb for them as they finished last on the table. However, their position doesn’t do justice to the good cricket they played as they did manage to win 6 games.
Positives
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Did it in 14 games. ??#HallaBol | #RoyalsFamily | #IPL2020 | @JofraArcher pic.twitter.com/GsyjfUZWCN
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) November 10, 2020
Jofra Archer was no doubt the stand out performer for RR. He was easily amongst the best bowlers of the tournament. He picked up 20 wickets at a meagre economy of 6.55. He picked up 10 wickets in the powerplay going at just 4.44 runs per over, which goes to show how dominant he was against top-order batsmen. He bowled with unreal pace and accuracy and was the main reason RR usually got the all-important early breakthroughs. He is a potential T20 legend in the making.
The biggest surprise not just for RR, but for the entire IPL, was perhaps the brilliant performance of Rahul Tewatia. He had been a part of the IPL since 2014 but got the opportunity to play all 14 games for the first time. And boy, did he play well! He achieved the rare distinction of scoring more than 200 runs (255) and picking 10 pickets in the season. He batted at a strike rate of 140, bowled with an economy of 7 and was just the perfect player for RR at number 7 which a lot of teams lacked. He won them 2-3 games almost all by himself. He is a plucky, gritty character and could be an important cog in the wheel for the Royals in the years to come.
Struggles
The biggest struggle for RR this season was their incoherent batting line up. They changed their opening pair around 5 times in the first 6 games. Players were batting out of position, and roles weren’t defined. They took the concept of a flexible batting line up too far. That prevented them from using their resources to the maximum potential. While they settled on an opening pair of Robin Uthappa and Ben Stokes in the last few games, that meant that their main batsman, Jos Buttler was being heavily underutilised. He had been the league’s top-most opener since 2018, and his presence at the top was a must.
So disappointing to end the season last night, but it has been one to remember.
Thank you for all your love and support. We will be back stronger. ? @rajasthanroyals pic.twitter.com/TSVqKUcVMx
— Rahul Tewatia (@rahultewatia02) November 2, 2020
Their second biggest problem was the fact that there was not a single bowler who complemented Archer. The spinners were decent, but the supporting pacers were extremely poor. Jaydev Unadkat, Ankit Rajpoot, Varun Aaron. None of them could do much to sustain the pressure created by Archer. Kartik Tyagi, the U-19 superstar looked much better than the rest of the Indian pacers. However, while he will become better with experience, he wasn’t the perfect foil for Archer just yet. Due to this, teams ended up chasing easily or posting mammoth targets on the board.
Their over-reliance on their overseas players was also very evident. Most of the Indian players seemed to be just occupying positions instead of actually contributing much. If 2 of the 4 overseas players had an off day, it became extremely arduous for RR to compete.
What Next?
Nevertheless, RR has the potential to be a threatening squad. Going forward, most importantly, they need to snap up a good India T20 bowler. It could perhaps be someone like Sandeep Sharma or Dhawal Kulkarni. They need to back up Archer with some kind of support.
Secondly, it is important for them to make Jos Buttler open. That is non-negotiable as he has the ability to win matches all by himself, and that too consistently. If they want to continue with Stokes as their 2nd opener, they need to bring in an experienced Indian middle-order batsman, or start grooming someone like Mahipal Lomror who is also the Rajasthan captain in the Ranji Trophy. If Rajasthan can manage to get these things in place, they will definitely give themselves a massive opportunity to go for the trophy next year.
