Last Updated on 4 months by Charbel Coorey

Title contenders? Sangakkara excited about Royals squad | RR director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara pleased with IPL 2021 Auction performance

After a fine performance in the IPL Auction, many fans and pundits have the Rajasthan Royals as genuine Title contenders in IPL 2021.

The Royals, the league’s “nearly men” since their triumph back in the first edition of IPL back in 2008, have strengthened in key areas as they look to break their 12-year Title drought. Much has been made of Chris Morris’ record price and whether he can repay the faith shown in him, but the Royals believe in what he can offer and how he can elevate the side to another level.

Speaking in a media roundtable on Friday, Kumar Sangakkara, Director of Cricket at Rajasthan Royals, said that the franchise identified Morris as a key target, and were very happy to land him even though the price was very high.

“Morris’ numbers when he’s been fit and strong has been some of the best in all IPLs. Especially at the death, his numbers are probably at number one. In terms of game impact, he’s very much in that top bracket. So, his ability in that sense is very crucial for us and it frees us up to think of how to use bowlers in other ways,” said Sangakkara.

Also, the Royals fought hard to acquire the services of Shivam Dube. Sangakkara was quite excited about the potential he brings. The Royals’ director of cricket spoke of Dube’s role and potential, highlighting that he will bat in the middle overs as this has been an area of concern for the Royals in recent years.

“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.

Other areas which the Royals focused on was their bowling depth and middle order batting. The additions of Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya and Akash Singh, in conjunction with the domestic seamers and in-form AJ Tye, gives the Royals plenty of options and depth.

“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,” said the Royals’ Director of Cricket.

Sangakkara mentioned the opportunity for Karthik Tyagi to continue his development, among others.

“We had Karthik Tyagi last season who came along pretty well. He does quite well through the middle and the backend. We have Sakariya this season and Jaydev Unadkat on the bench, and a few other local seamers that have come in.”

“Sakariya is a left-arm fast bowler. He seems quite exciting. Not exactly high-pace, but good variation and ability to bowl in different phases of the game. Being left-arm of course gives you quite a big advantage in terms of getting into sides as well.”

“So, we are looking at Tyagi, Sakariya and other young pace bowlers including Unadkat to be able to participate at various times, and maybe be a core part of our bowling lineup,” Sangakkara said.

You can check out the video version of the interview here

All-in-all, it was a fine auction for the Royals, and plenty of eyes will be focused on them to see how they perform in IPL 2021.