Rajasthan Royals has been one of the most unpredictable team over the decades and a team which rely on young talents. Rajasthan Royals won the inaugural IPL season at 2008 under the late Shane Warne Leadership with a young core. Since then, RR had seasons full of ups and downs with the current skipper Sanju Samson at the helm who has had a prolific run.
Rajasthan Royals environment changed to winning ways when Kumar Sangakkara joined as the director of cricket in 2021 and Sanju Samson was appointed as a captain which made them to reach the 2022 final and reached the playoffs of 2024 in the last 4 years. After the return of Rahul Dravid (Former Winning Coach of India) as the head coach of RR, they would try to bring a new trophy to their trophy cabinet. Can Rajasthan Royals win their Second trophy? Let’s briefly look at their SWOT analysis of the 2025 Squad.
Strengths
Rajasthan Royals did a wise decision retaining Sanju Samson as the captain, The 30-year-old who was a part of T20 2024 World cup winning squad would have gained a lot of experiences from the senior players of the team, which would help him to make better decisions at high pressure games.
RR have got an explosive batting unit, despite the exit of the star English batter Jos Buttler, they have managed to make a good batting unit which includes the opening partnership of Sanju and Jaiswal and players like Nitish Rana, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag & Shimron Hetmyer. Nitish Rana being a former skipper of KKR & also played for MI, his leadership qualities will also help Sanju Samson.
After the exit of Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin their leading wicket takers in the last 3 seasons they managed to pick 2 experienced spinners from Sri Lanka Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana which might give them a decent 8 overs of spin along with few overs from Nitish Rana and Riyan Parag.
Weakness
After the exit of Jos Buttler, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin and Trent Boult the team lacks to match the quality of last season, all 4 players were a major part of RR success in last 3 seasons, it would be really challenging for the players to match that quality.
RR rely on their batting unit this season they have an inexperienced bowling unit, despite the return of Jofra Archer their team bowling unit is still weak, it would be really hard for the skipper to choose the right bowling options this season. Jofra Archer would most likely will not play entire tourney because there’s a scheduled Test match between England & Zimbabwe in 22nd May and a bumper English summer as well and he is also very much injury prone.
Like every Season RR is lacking that all-rounder in the team, the only all-rounder RR manage to pick was Wanindu Hasaranga which reduces the batting dept of the team.
Opportunities
The average age of the squad is 25, which includes a player aged 13 Vaibhva Suryavanshi. The youngster can be the youngest player to play in the history of IPL. this would make them to have a team for the future. The newbie cricketer already has played for India A in the recently concluded Asia A tournament. RR have a history of developing young talents as the skipper Sanju Samson was first spotted by Rahul Dravid in an academy when he was for trials in 2013 and he played IPL at the age of 18 years.
Afghanistan’s rising left arm speedster Fazalhaq Farroqui can be a dark horse for the team. The player earlier was with SRH and can we see him playing in franchise leagues as well. The bowling attack of RR is quite relatively inexperienced but they also have the services of Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Kwena Maphhaka who is tipped to be the next big thing in World cricket & Akash Madhwal who have been with a prestigious MI side in the past.
Threats
RR doesn’t have a strong team like others in this IPL which would be challenging for them this season. The bowling unit of RR would struggle in high scoring venues as they don’t have an experienced death bowling options this Season. RR would struggle to pick the right foreign combination this season as they have 5 foreign bowlers which would make them difficult to pick the that Playing XI this season.
Yashasvi Jaiswal who has had a massive breakthrough performance in the last couple of years can be a huge threat for opposition team. With no Jos Buttler in the side, Yashasvi will have to bat a bit more responsibly. Despite amassing tons of runs in the last 2 editions: IPL 2024- 425 & IPL 2023- 625 runs, he is still not a regular member of T20I side with Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson & Shubman Gill & even Ruturaj Gaikwad fighting for spots as we can expect a cracker of fight between the modern day rising giants.
Squad
RR squad: Sanju Samson (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Sandeep Sharma, Jofra Archer, Wainindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Nitish Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Charak, Fazal Farooqi, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Kwena Maphaka, …
The coaching staff of RR includes
Rahul Dravid: Head coach. Kumar Sangakkara: Director of cricket, Vikram Rathour: Batting coach, Sairaj Bahutule: Spin-bowling coach, Shane Bond: Fast bowling coach, Dishant Yagnik: Fielding coach, Trevor Penney: Assistant coach, with these experienced coaches the players would get the right mentorship for the games.
Prediction
RR have a good blend of experience and youth going ahead in IPL 2025 but there are a lot of areas which the management will have to work on. With Rahul Dravid back as the head coach and winning T20 WC 2024, Sanju Samson would be quite a bit relieved as we all have seen that Rahul Dravid brings the best out of individuals.
It looks unlikely that RR will win IPL 2025 as the workload management of Jofra Archer would be the key. The seasoned campaigner Sandeep Sharma would be key with the new ball but they lack the death bowlers who can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat which can’t be ignored at all.