CLT20: Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals - Familiar foes face off in the Tournament Opener

Rajasthan Royals:

Rahul Dravid and Shane Watson: Key to Royals’ success

Rajasthan Royals has been the underdogs in every editions of the IPL. They have a unique formula to win matches that other teams don’t. Usually teams prefer opening the innings with a batsman who can go after the bowling but the Royals think tank thought otherwise and brought forward an innovative idea of opening the innings with their skipper Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane, who are considered as slow starters.

In the past, both the batsmen have done their job perfectly and they set the platform for Shane Watson and Brad Hodge to take centre stage. Royals also have the exciting and young Sanju Samson in their line-up. His heroics in the 2013 IPL earned him the Under-23 rising star of the tournament award. Stuart Binny, the veteran all-rounder from Karnataka, has been used as the floater in the line-up.

In James Faulkner and Kevon Cooper, the Royals have two all-rounders tailor made for T20 format. Both can use the long handles well and can hit the ball way out of the ground. Adding to their hard hitting skills, they are good T20 bowlers, who can mix up their variations to create doubts in batsmen’s mind and have a good slower ball to confuse the batsmen.

Their bowling department that comprises of Rajiv Shukla and Vikramjit Malik is very inexperienced. They do not have the cushion of having a genuine spinner in their side. All-rounder Ashok Meneria, who had a great series against New Zealand A, has to take responsibilities of spin department.

Apart from his batting powers, Shane Watson will look to contribute to the team with the ball as well. He had done it for Australia and Royals in the past and look will to continue it in the CLT20 as well.

Possible Playing XI: Rahul Dravid (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Shane Watson, Sanju Samson (wk), Stuart Binny, Brad Hodge, Ashok Menaria, Kevon Cooper, James Faulkner, Vikramjeet Malik, Rajiv Shukla.

With two equally matched teams fighting each other in the opening game of the 2013 CLT20, a cracker of the match is on the cards. The fans will hope for the rain gods to stay away from the SMS stadium in Jaipur.