IPL 2020: The best player in each department for Rajasthan Royals

The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League is not that far away and we have already started to look at different teams' strengths and weaknesses. Now that we know all the confirmed squads, it's only natural to analyse how strong a certain team really is.

Here we are going to talk about Rajasthan Royals (RR), who will be lead by Steve Smith in IPL 2020. RR traded their skipper Ajinkya Rahane this year as he made his way to Delhi Capitals (DC), so the Rajasthan franchise are now looking to start fresh under Smith.

In the IPL 2020 auctions, RR were quite busy as the completed the signings of Robin Uthappa (₹ 3 cr), Andrew Tye (₹ 1 cr), Jaydev Unadkat (₹ 3 cr), Yashasvi Jaiswal (₹ 2.4 cr), Anuj Rawat (₹80 L), Kartik Tyagi (₹ 1.3 cr), Tom Curran (₹ 1 cr), and David Miller (₹ 75 L). In the trade window, RR signed Ankit Rajpoot, Rahul Tewatia, and Mayank Markande.

Now that we know the improvements RR made to their squad for IPL 2020, here we are going to take a look at the best player in each department for the Smith-led side.

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All-rounder and finisher - Ben Stokes

Ben Stokes during a press conference is RR's trump card

This wasn't going to be much of a debate, was it? Ben Stokes has had incredible 2019, where everything he did came off and now that he is a World Cup winner, much will be expected of him this year in the pink city.

Last season, Stokes played only nine games because he left early to prepare for the World Cup. In those matches, he scored 123 runs at a strike rate 125, while he picked up 6 wickets with the ball in hand. Although the English all-rounder didn't perform that well last season, he clearly is RR's best bet at number three or four. He has been in a rich vein of form in 2019, so we might see Stokes on top of his game in IPL 2020.

Fast Bowler - Jofra Archer

Jofra Archer has had a brilliant last 12 months

Another Englishman whose 2019 was just incredible is Jofra Archer and like in the past couple of seasons, Archer will be RR's go-to man in IPL 2020. Last season, in the 11 matches that he played, the 25-year-old picked up 11 wickets, at an economy rate of just 6.76.

Archer is one of the best death bowlers in the world and his skiddy action makes it very hard for batsmen to pick him. His slower balls are the most lethal because his average pace is around 145 km/hr but his slower ball drops down to about 110.

Right now, Archer is recovering from an injury and he is expected to be fit way before IPL 2020 starts.

Spin Bowler - Shreyas Gopal

A leg-spinner who has been consistently good for RR over the past couple of seasons is Shreyas Gopal. The Karnataka bowler picked up an incredible 20 wickets last season, at an economy rate of just 7.22 and a strike rate of 14.40.

He was by far RR's best bowler last season as he not only kept the batsmen quiet during the middle overs but also picked up wickets regularly. This year, the pressure will be on him to deliver again as now he will have some competition from Mayank Markande in the squad.

Wicket-keeper and batsman - Jos Buttler

Jos Buttler is RR's backbone and opening move

Jos Buttler is RR's heartthrob and he will again return to Jaipur based franchise as their best batsman. Last season, because of the 2019 World Cup, he played just 8 games and scored 311 runs at an average of almost 40 and a strike rate of 152.

At the top of the order, Buttler has won RR so many games almost single-handedly and that's the reason why he is someone the Rajasthan franchise just cannot afford to lose. As a wicket-keeper, he didn't don the gloves last season but that was only because he had to manage his workload.

In IPL 2020, one expects Buttler to be back behind the wickets as the other keeper in teh squad, Sanju Samson is an incredible outfield fielder too.