Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey

RR IPL 2021 Auction Analysis: How did they perform? | Analysis of the performance of Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2021 Auction

Retained players: Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Mahipal Lomror, Manan Vohra, Mayank Markande, Rahul Tewatia, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anuj Rawat, Kartik Tyagi, David Miller, Andrew Tye

Players bought: Chris Morris (INR 16.25 crore), Shivam Dube (INR 4.4 crore), Chetan Sakariya (INR 1.2 crore), Mustafizur Rahman (INR 1 crore), Liam Livingstone (INR 75 lakh), Akash Singh (INR 20 lakh), KC Cariappa (INR 20 lakh), Kuldip Yadav (INR 20 lakh)

Purse remaining: INR 13.65 crore

Best Probable XI: Ben Stokes, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Shivam Dube, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Chris Morris, Karthik Tyagi, Shreyas Gopal

Alternate XI: Ben Stokes, Manan Vohra, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Shivam Dube, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Chris Morris, Karthik Tyagi, Shreyas Gopal

The Royals made the biggest release prior to the auction as Steve Smith was let go by the franchise. That move freed up 12.5 crores from the purse, and without Smith the team had a better chance of assembling a balanced XI.

Rajasthan Royals set their sights on having a death bowler to complement Archer and bagged the services of the best option in Chris Morris. The Protea was the costliest buy in the history of the IPL auction as he broke the record, previously held by Yuvraj Singh, after he was signed for a staggering amount of 16.25 crores.

Also, Shivam Dube was bought for 4.4 crores and will be used in the lower middle-order where the franchise lacked an all-rounder in the previous season. These moves have allowed the Royals to put together a much more balanced squad, which is something they have lacked in recent seasons.

Speaking to CricBlog’s Charbel Coorey, Kumar Sangakkara, Director of Cricket for the Rajasthan Royals, was quite excited about Dube’s addition to the Royals’ squad.

“I think Shivam’s great strength is his ability to bat through that middle order; not exactly at the death, but slightly earlier than that. He’s very good against spin.”

“Dube was a very good buy for us and I think he’s exciting,” said Sangakkara.

The franchise also bagged great backups as availed players like Mustafizur Rahman and Chetan Sakariya. Mustafizur Rahman in particular can offer great depth, particularly if Chris Morris goes down with an injury as pointed out by many fans and pundits.

“Morris’ numbers when he’s been fit and strong has been some of the best in all IPLs. Especially at the death, he’s probably at number one. His ability in that sense is very crucial for us, and frees us up to think of how to use Archer in other ways,” said Sangakkara.

“We also have AJ Tye in our line up, Mustafizur and then we of course have the young Indian quicks to support that. It gives us a few more combinations that we can play.”

The 2008 champions were spot on with their buys and have no major weaknesses in the squad. They look quite covered in all departments, especially when you add the batting prowess the team possesses in the form of Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes and Sanju Samson. Also, if Rahul Tewatia can have a similar impact this season, RR will be a team hard to stop.

IPL 2021 Prediction

The Rajasthan Royals have assembled the best squad of the tournament alongside the Mumbai Indians. They will be one of the title contenders if the key players stay injury free through the course of the tournament, which is a welcome change from being the “nearly men” over the past few years.

Written by Sarthak Karkhanis. Follow Sarthak on Twitter today.