RR Squad IPL 2024: Rajasthan Royals, the inaugural champions will once again look to get back to the glory days in the 17th edition of the IPL. They have already got off to a great start in IPL 2024. Yashasvi Jaiswal alongside Jos Buttler, an IPL veteran would be the key players for the Royals. Buttler, who had a forgettable last season, has bounced back with match-winning shows and two centuries already in the 2024 edition of the IPL. Young players like Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag will also look to impress selectors to make a last-minute entry in the Indian team for the T20 WC squad. The senior spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin will hold the key in the bowling department.
When the franchises were up for sale, Rajasthan Royals attracted the lowest bid and no one gave them a chance but led by an inspiring Shane Warne they stunned everyone by winning the inaugural season of the IPL. In the subsequent editions that followed they have reached the playoffs four times and finished sixth and below seven times. Off the field the RR had issues over ownership in 2010, three of their players were arrested in 2013 on spot-fixing charges. After an investigation, the franchise was banned for two years for their involvement in the betting and spot-fixing scandal.
Rajasthan Royals have a history of nurturing talents and the recent example being Yashasvi Jaiswal, who they retained for ₹4 crore ahead of the 2022 mega IPL auction. The other talents who later went on to play for India were Ravindra Jadeja and Sanju Samson. They too have put in big money on players such as Ben Stokes ( ₹12.5 crore), Jaydev Unadkat ( ₹11.5 crore) and Chris Morris (16.25 crore).
Warne led the Royals until 2011, after which Rahul Dravid took charge for two years. Shane Watson led briefly before Steve Smith was appointed captain in 2014. Smith's ban in 2018 for ball-tampering saw Ajinkya Rahane in the skipper role. Smith returned as captain in 2019, but was released by the Royals in 2021 after two poor seasons. Sanju Samson was named captain ahead of the 2021 season and continues in that role so far.
The controversy that rocked the franchise, IPL, BCCI and the cricketing world was the match-fixing allegations in the 2013 season, which led to the arrests of three Rajasthan Royals players - S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajay Chandila on spot-fixing charges. Following the Lodha Committee report which was constituted in the wake of the fixing scandal, the board banned RR for two years and one of its owners, Raj Kundra for life.
Rajasthan Royals full squad: Sanju Samson (c), Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Rathore, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Sen, Navdeep Saini, Sandeep Sharma, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Avesh Khan, Rovman Powell, Shubham Dubey, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Abid Mushtaq, Nandre Burger.
