IPL 2021 Auction Preview: Rajasthan Royals Squad Details

One of the best bowlers in the tournament, and the eventual Most Valuable Player. The best Indian all-rounder, in terms of numbers. Arguably, the greatest all-rounder of the modern game. Two of the best batsmen in world cricket. Rajasthan Royals had Jofra Archer, Rahul Tewatia, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Steve Smith in their squad for IPL 2020 and still ended up finishing last on the points table.

After finishing 7th and 8th in two successive seasons, the task at hand for Royals is rather significant at the player auction. And they have rung in the changes.

Results in last three seasons

Season	League stage finish	Playoff result
IPL 2018	4th	Lost in the Eliminator
IPL 2019	7th	––
IPL 2020	8th	––

The big story from retention day was Royals letting go of their captain Steve Smith. The Aussie superstar struggled for rhythm in UAE as he later admitted, and it was, in reality, not a surprise to see RR make the call. They doubled it down by announcing Sanju Samson will be captain, so there is no speculation about getting Smith back to lead the team from the auction pool at a different price point. Among other players released, Tom Curran was a regular in the side when Stokes was absent. And Robin Uthappa continues his IPL franchise hopping after being traded to CSK. In essence, the Royals just made one big decision to shake things up.

Players released after IPL 2020: Steve Smith, Akash Singh, Anirudha Joshi, Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Shashank Singh, Tom Curran, Varun Aaron
Players traded out: Robin Uthappa

RR squad for IPL 2021 ahead of auction

Batsmen	Bowlers	Wicketkeepers	Allrounders
Yashasvi Jaiswal	Jofra Archer	Sanju Samson	Ben Stokes
Mahipal Lomror	Mayank Markande	Jos Buttler	Rahul Tewatia
Manan Vohra	Shreyas Gopal	Anuj Rawat
Riyan Parag	Jaydev Unadkat
David Miller	Kartik Tyagi
	AJ Tye

Royals have the second largest purse for the auction but do not have the same resources of Punjab Kings to perhaps go decisively after their main targets. There are obvious holes in the squad and some restraint would be needed as they look to fill 12 slots, three of those overseas.