Rajasthan Royals back to winning ways

One aspect which is common between Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad is the number of inexperienced players in their setup. In a long tournament like IPL, the experienced ones in the respective teams must play consistently well to compensate for the inexperience if the team needs to reach the playoffs. If you look at the points table this season all these 3 teams are struggling and one of the reasons being their experienced players have not been consistent enough. Out of these 3 teams, KKR is struggling the most because all their experienced players have let them down. Morgan, Cummins, Naraine, Gill, and Russell have been a pale shadow of their usual self.

Rajasthan Royals have been let low by a spate of injuries to their experienced international players and both Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer are irreplaceable. To the team’s credit, some of their uncapped players have played well namely, Chetan Sakariya and Riyan Parag. Jaydev Unadkat has also bowled well though he is not an uncapped player. But you need consistency if you have to win IPL and that’s quite understandably missing from both KKR and Rajasthan Royals.

These two table laggards met each other at Wankhede yesterday and it was an opportunity for both the teams to get their campaign back on track. 

We have had some very one-sided matches over the last two days and what I expected at the very least was a highly competitive encounter. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and it was a real pain to watch the match which was low in quality with bad batting and even worse fielding especially by KKR. 

So what were the hits and misses from yesterday’s match? Let’s have a look.

The Hits:

When Rajasthan Royals won their first match of the season it was Chris Morris who did the star turn for them. He is a very underrated all-rounder and I sometimes wonder why he is not considered for South Africa. Yesterday he was back once again claiming 4 wickets and played a prime role in helping Rajasthan keep KKR to a very manageable total of 133 runs. Two wins for Rajasthan Royals and both the times it’s been Chris Morris who was adjudicated as the man of the match.

Sanju Samson generally ends up losing his wicket when he tries to be overly aggressive at the start of the innings. Yesterday the asking run rate was very less and this meant he didn’t need to be aggressive at all and it worked in his favour. He curbed down his attacking instincts and played a matured innings to take the team home. I hope he understands that he need not play too aggressively at the start because once he is set he can be very dangerous at the end and that’s what he needs to focus on.

The only bright spot for KKR yesterday was the bowling performances of Shivam Mavi and Varun Chakravarthy. To be fair to Varun he has been very consistent with his bowling this season. He is now the primary bowler of the team and it’s kind of funny for KKR who has Pat Cummins and Sunil Naraine in their ranks. It just shows the non-performance of KKR’s star players this season. Mavi got his first opportunity yesterday and he bowled with a decent pace. He went for just 19 runs in his 4 overs which was a good return considering the pitch and ground conditions at Wankhede. Will he be consistent? Only time will tell.

The misses:

The KKR top order has been a big letdown this season. Shubhman Gill is considered the most talented batsman among all the youngsters in the country. But his performance after the Brisbane test has been highly disappointing. He is unable to play in the gaps. Leg side half volleys are not being put away. And now he is having a horrid time in the field too missing catches and letting go of boundaries easily. For KKR to turn around this campaign Gill would need to get his act together.

The two high-profile foreign recruits for KKR, Pat Cummins and Eoin Morgan have been in horrible form, to say the least. For KKR to be competitive both of them have to be leading the charts but they have failed miserably. Cummins is a very different bowler in test match cricket but when it comes to T20 he invariably struggles particularly at the death. It won’t be a bad idea to rest him for a couple of matches and try out Ben Cutting or Lockie Ferguson. 

Rahul Tewatia is a pale shadow of 2020. He is neither picking up wickets with the ball nor he is playing those hard-hitting innings with the bat. There is still time in the tournament for him to show his heroics and I hope to see him play some stellar knocks soon.

What to look forward to?

KKR needs to make some changes in their playing XI at least for the next two matches. The current set of players looks jaded so it won’t be a bad idea to try a few new players in the next two matches. The team is already languishing at the bottom of the table and the good thing is that it can’t get any worse. So if they want to make some changes it has to be now.

T20 is a very fast-paced game and KKR needs to stop backing players who are not physically 100% fit. They can’t fall any further so give a chance to the benched players who are fitter than the ones who are in the playing XI currently. Play Tim Seifert as the wicketkeeper and allow Dinesh Karthick to play as a pure batsman. DK is one of the fittest players in the tournament and is a terrific outfielder. Here is my wish for the playing XI in the next match.

Venkatesh Iyer, Tim Seifert, Rahul Tripathi, Shubhman Gill, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthick, Ben Cutting, Lockie Ferguson, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Mavi, and Varun Chakravarthy.

Rajasthan Royals, have done well within their limitations. They will find it difficult to reach the top 4 but they can beat some good teams because they have a couple of match-winners in Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler who can win matches single-handedly. Teams like Rajasthan Royals and KKR will be party busters for the middle rung teams and when they start winning matches the tournament will get more exciting.

At the moment with a raging pandemic crippling our nation these one-sided matches are not helping in keeping our mind away from the tragedy. High time we get some close encounters and I hope the two matches today will give us that.

I am most excited to watch RCB vs CSK in the afternoon but the match thereafter is no less interesting where Delhi Capitals take on Sunrisers Hyderabad. 

Will we see some upsets happening today?

BTW, we are amidst a raging pandemic so keep your masks on and try and get vaccinated as soon as possible. Together we will get over this soon!

PS. Laughter is the best medicine. When you are down and feeling demotivated, pick up the phone and call one of your close friends who can help you detox. There is no better relationship than friends so be thankful to have them in your life. 

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