IPL 2019: 5 players who can open the innings for Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals has always surprised the opposition by its tactics. From team combinations to batting positions, the Royals have never shied away from experimenting. While some of these experiments have failed, a lot of them have succeeded. The Royals lacked proper all-rounders last season and thus they have bought a barrage of all-rounders at the auction this year.

Also, they have bought a lot of fast bowlers to strengthen bowling-attack. Talking about batsmen, the Royals will be dependent on the overseas stars once again. Steven Smith, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes are going to be the backbone of Rajasthan Royals' batting. The team also has more batting options this time around. While Royals can spring a surprise and use any player as an opener, we have tried to shortlist 5 players who, under normal circumstances, can be seen as opening options for the Royals in IPL 2019.

#5 Manan Vohra

Manan Vohra's new journey begins with the Royals

Manan Vohra was bought by the Royals at the auction for IPL 2019. Vohra has played some tremendous innings at the top of the order for Kings XI Punjab as an opener. His strokeplay and attacking style of batting make him a suitable candidate for an opener. Even though Vohra can bat anywhere in the batting line-up, he is most dangerous opening the batting.

#4 Rahul Tripathi

Rahul Tripathi will look to have another season

like

he did in 2017

Rahul Tripathi had a breakthrough season in IPL 2017 when he amassed 391 runs opening the innings for Rising Pune Supergiant. Tripathi was signed up by Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2018 but he was asked to bat in the middle order. Tripathi clearly looked like he was batting out of position and struggled to make useful contributions. However, after the departure of Jos Buttler, Tripathi got a chance to open the innings once again and got back into his groove. Even though Royals have a number of players for the role, Tripathi is surely an option.

#3 Liam Livingstone

Liam Livingstone could be the new face the Royals need

Liam Livingstone is one of the most promising faces of English cricket. The 25-year-old is rated highly in England and has even played a couple of T20 games for England. Livingstone is a hard-hitting opener who possesses a strike-rate of over 140. The all-rounder will be high on confidence after having a good PSL for Karachi Kings. Livingstone can be a candidate for opening the innings once the World Cup-bound players leave the tournament.

#2 Ajinkya Rahane

Ajinkya Rahane is ready to bat in any position

Ajinkya Rahane will have a lot to prove in IPL 2019. Rahane has been out of India's limited-overs sides for more than a year and his inability to score quick runs is cited as a reason for that. However, Rahane's record for Royals has been spectacular. The Royals skipper has been the mainstay of the team's batting for years now. His style of batting is best suited at the top of the innings and he is most likely to be seen opening the innings in most matches.

#1 Jos Buttler

Jos Buttler will be expected to do a lot of the damage

Rajasthan Royals struggled a bit in the initial part of IPL 2018 and the reason for this slow start was its poor batting display. The England duo of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes failed to deliver for the Royals. But that is when the Royals team management took the gamble of promoting Jos Buttler to open the innings and it totally paid off. Buttler looked at home as an opener and played some simply stunning innings for the Royals. He looked completely unstoppable and won quite a few matches single-handedly. The England vice-captain scored 548 runs in 13 matches at an outstanding average of 54.80 and a fabulous strike-rate of 155.24. He was one of the major reasons for Rajasthan Royals' qualification in the playoffs last year.

Buttler's last year's performance leaves no questions about who is going to be the Royals' first choice opener this year.