IPL 2020 Auction: 3 areas of concern for RR and who they should target

The IPL 2020 player auction is less than two weeks away, and with over 70 slots yet to be filled across the eight franchises, there is a lot of excitement surrounding the multiple plans that the teams will be looking to execute on 19th December in Kolkata.

One of the few teams to have released the most number of players ahead of the auction are the inaugural champions, Rajasthan Royals, who could be expected to enter quite a few bidding wars to land some impact players.

The Royals were one of the busiest teams during the trade window as they offloaded experienced stars Ajinkya Rahane and Dhawal Kulkarni while drafting in Ankit Rajpoot from KXIP.

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With Krishnappa Gowtham moving to KXIP for IPL 2020, RR also beefed up their spin bowling department with the acquisitions of leg-spinners Rahul Tewatia and Mayank Markande, with the duo set to join Shreyas Gopal and Riyan Parag in the squad.

The biggest name, however, in RR's list of released players was Jaydev Unadkat, who will yet again hope to land a big sum of money from the player auction. With the Royals having let go of Stuart Binny and Rahul Tripathi as well, they will need to spend wisely to cover a few grey areas in the squad.

On that note, here are three major areas of concern for RR and the players who they could target to fill those particular positions.

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#3 Backup opening batsman

Who will partner Jos Buttler at the top of the order?

Having lost the services of Ajinkya Rahane to the Delhi Capitals, RR might need to invest on yet another opening batsman, either who will be backed to do well from the season opener or as a backup to the likes of Manan Vohra and Sanju Samson.

Vohra has featured as an opener for a majority of his career and could be backed to open with Jos Buttler, while Sanju Samson comes in at No.3 or No.4, depending on the role handed to Steven Smith during IPL 2020.

India's latest teenage sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal could be a frontrunner to land the opening position if one was to go by RR's philosophy of backing youngsters to do well. If they want some experience at the top, Evin Lewis or Colin Munro might also work out for their side, offering a left-right combination.

Then again, RR already have four quality foreign players in their setup, and this is where experience in the form of Robin Uthappa could be of good value to the side.

#2 Big-hitting middle-order batsman

Will Deepak Hooda make his way back to RR?

Having let go of Rahul Tripathi ahead of the player auctions, Rajasthan Royals will now need to fill a slot in the middle order, and with Buttler, Smith, Stokes and Archer occupying the four foreign slots, RR might want to target an Indian middle-order batsman who they can back to feature in the playing XI for the entirety of the tournament.

One good option for RR could be to invest faith in the experience of Yusuf Pathan, who has churned out quite a few match-winning knocks in the middle order. What's more, given that RR coach Shane Warne has played with Pathan before, the Australian could make the most use of Pathan's strengths and play him as a floater.

Yet, Pathan hasn't played too much in the recent past and RR might want to try out a youngster such as Jharkand's Virat Singh, who finished with 343 runs from 10 matches at a strike rate of just above 142 or bring in the lanky Deepak Hooda, who could be the perfect fit at No.5.

However, one must not forget that RR will need a backup foreign big-hitter in case one of Buttler, Smith or Stokes fail to deliver, and big names such as David Miller or Shimron Hetmyer could be valuable options.

#1 Backup fast bowlers

Jofra Archer will lead the pace attack for RR in IPL 2020

RR certainly pulled off a quality signing by signing Ankit Rajpoot from KXIP and in the company of Jofra Archer, Rajpoot could turn out to be a dependable bowler. However, having lost out on the services of Dhawal Kulkarni, RR will now need a reliable pacer to bank on if Archer or Rajpoot fail to get going, and the lone option they currently have in their roster is Varun Aaron.

Aaron does bring some experience into the side, but he has leaked quite a few runs especially in the death overs, and RR will want to bring in someone who can curb the run flow. In this regard, Mohit Sharma could be a good option, with the ex-CSK pacer more than capable of using his variations to trouble the best of batsmen in the slog overs.

RR could also pick one among local talent Aniket Choudhary or someone like Barinder Sran to add an extra dimension to the bowling attack, with both the lanky left-arm seamers offering a little variety.

Yet another thing RR will need to consider is to have reliable backup incase Jofra Archer fails to make an impression or picks up a niggle, and with the likes of Chris Woakes or David Willey unlikely to fetch expensive bids, one among the two pacers could be signed up by RR.