IPL 2020: 3 players who could be surplus to Rajasthan Royals

Ever since their historic victory in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rajasthan Royals (RR)has been one of the perennial underachievers of the league. Under the leadership of Shane Warne, Rajasthan Royals won the tournament in 2008. However, since that historic achievement, Rajasthan has never managed to perform consistently in the tournament.

There is certainly no doubt that Rajasthan Royals boasts of a formidable unit with the likes of Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, and Steve Smith who are genuine match winners. They have a good bunch of young players but consistency has been the main area of concern for RR. Rajasthan bagged the services of Yashasvi Jaiswal for Rs 2.4 crores and he could turn out to be the X factor for them. They have a settled unit and are likely to stick with that combination. Hence some of the players could end up warming the benches for the majority of the season.

Full Rajasthan Royals squad

Mahipal Lomror, Manan Vohra, Riyan Parag, Steve Smith, Robin Uthappa, David Miller, Ankit Rajpoot, Mayank Markande, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Akash Singh, Oshane Thomas, Andrew Tye, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tewatia, Shashank Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anirudha Joshi, Tom Curran, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, Anuj Rawat.

Also see – BPL Most Runs

Now let us have a look at 3 players who could be surplus for the Rajasthan Royals.

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David Miller

David Miller could find himself on bench more often this year

'Killer Miller' announced his arrival in IPL cricket during his stint with the Kings XI Punjab. Back in 2013, David Miller played one of the finest IPL knocks when the southpaw plundered an unbeaten 101 of just 38 deliveries against the Royal Challengers Bangalore and helped KXIP register an exceptional come from behind victory.Through the course of his stint with Punjab, Miller established himself as an integral part of the unit. However he has been nowhere close to his best in the recent past which led to his ouster from the KXIP outfit. He was bought for a mere Rs 75 lakhs and could come into equation for the Royals only when there is an injury concern. Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, and Ben Stokes are expected to feature in the playing XI which would restrict Miller’s participation.

Andrew Tye

Andrew Tye

In all likelihood, Andrew Tye could be a surplus for the Rajasthan Royals. They already have a balanced set of foreign players expected to play a pivotal role for them. The champions of the inaugural edition bagged his services for just INR 1 crore. However, he is expected to warm the benches for the majority of the tournament.

The Australian medium-pacer hogged the limelight in his debut IPL game for the Gujarat Lions in 2017 when he returned with exceptional figures of 5/17. He bagged 12 wickets in 6 matches and was bought by Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in the next season. He turned out to be their X factor in 2018 and won the purple cap with 24 wickets in 14 games. Tye had a woeful season in 2019 when he bagged just 3 wickets in 6 matches for KXIP and had to warm the benches for the majority of the season.

Oshane Thomas

Oshane Thomas

Having released Oshane Thomas ahead of the auctions, it was indeed a strange move to buy him back. The Caribbean speedster warmed the benches for the majority of the season last year and failed to make an impact in the limited opportunities he got for the Royals. Thomas was not given a long run by the Rajasthan Royals which was understandable given the fact that there were some genuine match-winners in the team. The Caribbean speedster could turn out to be massive retention for RR in future years.

Thomas has the tendency to hurry batters with his pace. He came into the limelight back in 2017 after bagging the important wickets of Chris Gayle and Carlos Brathwaite in the Caribbean Premier League. There is certainly no doubt of the talent he possesses, but the Jamaican is still a work in progress and could be in the fringes for the major part of IPL 2020.