3 major reasons behind RR's early exit from IPL 2025 ft. Retention Blunders 

The Rajasthan Royals (RR) have had a massive fall from grace, resorting to their same old mediocre ways after a rather promising previous cycle. Making it to the final in 2022, and always remaining in the playoffs hunt since then, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season was expected to be the next step in progress, but instead, they have regressed.

With just three wins to show for in 11 matches, RR bowed out of the playoffs race. Their most recent defeat comes across as their most humiliating one as Mumbai Indians (MI) won by 100 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Thursday, May 1.

For a downfall of this level, a lot had to go wrong, and RR won't need to do much digging to understand where it all went wrong for them. On that note, let us take a look at three reasons behind RR's early exit from IPL 2025.

#1 Questionable decisions during retention process

RR arguably set themselves up for failure with their bizarre strategy when it came to retentions and auctions. The majority of the franchises balanced between the temptation to retain the core, and leave enough to be competitive at the auction table, considering the plethora of options that will be available.

RR, however, went all-out and overboard when it came to retentions, perhaps more than what was necessary. They were the only franchise to use up the maximum quota of six retentions, along with KKR. From the three-time winners' perspective, it made much more sense since it was a title-winning squad that they were trying to keep hold of.

More so than the number of retentions, it was the price at which some of them were retained. Those were far more than the price that they would have gone for at the auction table.

Going into the auction with the lowest purse, and with no Right-to-Match Cards, RR had to settle for some mediocre players, as bringing back some of their former players like Jos Buttler and Yuzvendra Chahal was out of the question.

Shelling out too much money on 'potential' rather than keeping hold of the personnel that had delivered was the first and the biggest mistake RR committed after the 2024 campaign.

The newly assembled squad on a limited budget clearly lacked the prowess and balance of their predecessors, and finding success with this bunch was always going to be a tall ask for captain Sanju Samson. Almost everything had to go right for this team to compete with the best, and inevitably, it did not pan out in that way.

#2 Failing to close out matches

RR did not have the best of auctions, but they did punch above their weight on several occasions, largely due to individualistic brilliance. But the thing about individuals stepping up is the fact that they can only take a team to a certain limit, the rest have to step up after that.

In RR's case the individual displays largely came from the top and middle-order batters, keeping them in the hunt. The bowlers, largely due to a mix of poor execution and questionable captaincy, could not step to bowl as a unit and help the team's cause.

Another major debacle that RR had to deal with for the majority of the season was Dhruv Jurel and Shimron Hetmyer having disastrous campaigns. Even if the batting group laid down the foundation, the lower middle-order pair failed to get the team over the line.

Retained for a combined sum of INR 25 crore, Jurel and Hetmyer just scored 249 and 197 runs, respectively, in 11 matches. Not everyone expects a bucket load of runs from the pair, but they even failed to produce the much-needed impact that was required of them.

Midway through the campaign, RR stuttered in run-chases against the Delhi Capitals (DC), Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). They gave away the contest from winning positions, and even if RR had managed to win two of those three games, they would have been involved in the mid-table middle, and alive in the race for the playoffs.

#3 Lack of support for Jofra Archer

RR do have a modern batting unit filled with potential, that could win matches if all goes right. But, their bowling unit lacks that ability. Tasked with building a bowling unit from scratch at the auction, RR could only assemble a mediocre unit with their limited purse.

A nearly all-Indian batting unit did give them the luxury to play as many overseas bowlers they wish, but several components were missing. RR failed to land a new-ball partner for Jofra Archer, asked too much of Sandeep Sharma, could not land Indian pacers or spinners to round up the bowling attack.

Jofra Archer overcame his poor form at the start to have a decent season for RR with both the bat and the ball, but RR did not have much to show for after that. Tushar Deshpande failed to justify his price tag, while the overseas spin duo of Maheesh Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga were quite inconsistent.

It is often remarked that a good bowling unit wins you a tournament, but this discarded RR bowling unit, lacking chemistry, guile, and impact, did not have the making of something capable of something special.