IPL titles: 1
Rajasthan Royals started the IPL in style as the Shane Warne-led side stunned everyone to lift the championship in 2008. Since then, however, they have remained the perennial underdogs, failing to repeat their maiden success. They have been very inconsistent and made to the playoffs only thrice in the next 11 years. In between, they were suspended for two years following the spot-fixing sage.
RR had ended as runners-up in the Champions League Twenty20 in 2013.
Here’s how they have fared year on year
How did they fare the previous season: Rajasthan Royals (RR), under Sanju Samson as skipper, displayed glimpses of their old times as they reached the final of IPL 2022, eventually losing to Gujarat Titans by seven wickets. RR managed to finish in the top two, having won nine of their 14 games in the league stage, and ending it with 18 points, only two behind eventual champions GT. The Royals had lost to Titans in Qualifier 1, but went into get the better of RCB in Qualifier 2. However, they could not replicate the result against Titans in the final.
Win Percentage: The Royals are seventh when it comes to win percentage. They have won 94 of 194 matches they have played in the IPL so far, and have lost 93 of them.
Highest Run-getter: Ajinkya Rahane
Ajinkya Rahane has been RR’s highest-run getter so far with 3098 runs from 99 innings at 35.60. He has a strike rate of 122.30 and has scored two hundreds and 21 fifties. Rahane donned the RR cap from 2011 to 2019. In 2020, he wore the Delhi Capitals jersey and was retained in 2021 as well. In the 2022 IPL auction, he was bought by KKR for his base price of 1 crore.
Among the current RR players, captain Sanju Samson is the highest run-getter with 3041 runs from 112 innings at 30.10. He has a strike rate of 137.36 for RR and has scored two hundreds and 17 fifties.
Highest wicket-taker: Siddharth Trivedi
It may come as a surprise but medium pacer Siddharth Trivedi, who last played for the franchise in 2013 before being suspended for one year for not reporting approaches by a bookie during the IPL spot-fixing scandal in 2013, is the highest wicket-taker for RR. He scalped 65 wickets from 75 innings at 29.29. He had one four-wicket haul, an economy rate of 7.58, and a strike rate of 23.1.
Among the current crop, batting all-rounder Riyan Parag has the most wickets – 3 from 15 innings at 73.66. His economy rate is 9.96 and strike rate is 44.3.
Highest individual score: Jos Buttler 124 off 64 balls vs Sunrisers Hyderabad in Delhi in 2021
This was Jos Buttler at his best as he plundered 8 sixes and 11 fours in a whirlwind knock of 124 off 64 balls after being put into bat first by SRH. He set the platform opening the batting and then added 150 rins off just 82 balls with captain Sanju Samson as RR posted a mammoth 220/3 from 20 overs. It was Buttler’s maiden T20 century. He started off a bit slowly, scoring 50 off 39 balls but then went berserk and smashed 74 off the next 25 balls to blow away SRH.
In reply, SRH could manage only 165/8 as RR cruised to a 55-run win. Buttler was deservedly named the Player of the Match for his match-winning innings.
Highest team score: 226/6 vs KXIP in Sharjah in 2020
Bonus Point: RR hold the record for the highest run chase in the league. They chased down 224 against Kings XI Punjab in Sharjah in 2020, winning by four wickets with three balls to spare. They bettered their own record set earlier where they chased down 215 against Deccan Chargers in the 2008 edition at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Favourite opponent: Punjab Kings (Formerly Kings XI Punjab)
Rajasthan have 14 wins from 24 matches and 10 losses against Punjab Kings, with one match lost in Super Over.
Bogey team: CSK have had a wood over Rajasthan Royals. RR have lost 15 of the 26 matches played against them and won just 11 matches.
When they played in the UAE:
Rajasthan Royals had a roller-coaster ride in the UAE in 2014. They started off with a win but then lost their way with two losses and then again got back on track to end the leg on a positive note with two consecutive wins making it three wins and two losses from five. They didn’t end up qualifying for playoffs in that campaign, ending fifth.
When they returned in 2020, they had an even worse time, finishing last in the group with just six wins from 14 matches.
In the second leg of the 2021 season, their poor form in the UAE continued as they won just two of the seven matches and lost five.
.Lesser known facts:
Rajasthan Royals have never made it to the final after the inaugural edition where they won the tournament.
RR have had the most hat-trick takers in the league: 4 – Ajit Chandila, Pravin Tambe, Shane Watson and Shreyas Gopal.
Royals were a part of the first-ever tied match in IPL history, against KKR at Cape Town in 2009. They won the match in the one-over eliminator.
Ajinkya Rahane has scored 1100 runs at an average of 39.29 in IPL at Sawai Mansingh Stadium – the most by any RR batsman at any venue in IPL
Retentions, purchases and squad
IPL 2022 players retained:
Wicketkeepers: Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Dhruv Jurel.
Batters: Shimron Hetmyer (WI), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag.
All-rounders: Ravichandran Ashwin.
Bowlers: Trent Boult, KC Cariappa, Yuzvendra Chahal, Obed McCoy, Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldeep Yadav.
IPL 2023 auctions players purchased
Jason Holder (Rs 5.75 Cr), Donovan Ferreira (Rs 50 lakh), Kunal Rathore (Rs 20 lakh), Adam Zampa (Rs 1.5 crore), Akash Vashisht (Rs 20 lakh), Joe Root (Rs 1 Cr)
Full squad:
Sanju Samson (c), Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, KC Cariappa, Kuldeep Sen, Kuldip Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Prasidh Krishna, Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Obed McCoy, Shimron Hetmyer, Trent Boult, Jason Holder, Adam Zampa, Donovan Ferreira, K.M. Asif, Murugan Ashwin, Akash Vashisht, Abdul P A, Kunal Rathore, Joe Root.