Rajasthan Royals – History, Players, Records and All you need to Know

The Sawai Mansingh Stadium-based franchisee Rajasthan Royals have become notorious for their off-field scandals. On the other side of the coin, they have been quite helpful to the youngsters who have craved for the chance to play at a high-level tournament like IPL. Most of the time, they have had a side to beat but eventually, they find themselves struggling to get into the Playoffs. 

Well, in all such chaos, everybody forgets they are the champions of the inaugural edition of IPL in 2008. 

Know all about Rajasthan Royals- “HallaBol”

How was Rajasthan Royals franchise formed ?

Emerging Media gained ownership of the Jaipur-based franchise team with a bid of $67 million, making it the least expensive team in the league. 

There had been a situation in 2010 when the BCCI was trying to ban the franchisee from the IPL. The Mumbai Court saved Rajasthan from any ban and they played in the next IPL. 

Inspirational Shane Warne  

In the very first season of IPL, people were talking about Dhoni’s CSK, Dada’s KKR, Sachin’s Mumbai, Dravid’s RCB, but very rarely did people give any attention to Rajasthan Royals. People were already ruling them out. 

Though people were proved right at least for the first match when they were crumbled by Delhi Daredevils, later captain Shane Warne’s 76 off 49 balls against Punjab imbued the confidence and belief in the team and since then they went all guns blazing. 

The final was against mighty Chennai who had been considered as the potential title winners right from the start of the season. RR proved everyone wrong and won the final of the inaugural IPL. 

 A downslide that never came to halt  

They became the champions out of blue(at least for the people) and just as quickly vanished from the list of potential winners for the upcoming IPLs. 

After the first IPL season, over the 12 years of IPL, they have managed to qualify for the playoffs only 3 times. Most of the time, they relied on other team’s performances. It has surely been annoying and agonizing for any RR fan.   

Probable reasons for Rajasthan behind such poor run 

It’s baffling to see their struggle as they have had some of the most influencing players captaining the side. After Shane Warne, came Rahul Dravid, then Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith, and now Sanju Samson. 

They also had Graeme Smith, Yusuf Pathan, James Faulkner, Johan Botha in the earlier years. Unfortunately for them and their fans, the team game was never up to the mark and if it was, it was very occasional. 

In the recent past, they have had English stars like Jos Butler, Ben Stokes, and Jofra Archer. Interestingly, these big names very rarely played the match as a teammate of RR. Most of the time, one or two of them have always been injured, or pulled out from the leagues, or have prioritized family over the team.  

RR has the peculiar habit of not performing as a team when the situation demands the most. Well, again the availability of English comes into the picture. Many times, there have been some clashes between the IPL schedule and England’s international schedule. Quite obviously, the English stars had prioritized their national cricket, which of course is an ideal scenario. This is the way it should be.

Clearly, RR hasn’t had the marquee players in a particular stage of the tournament when it mattered the most. 

Rajasthan Royals has a mine of talent

Ajinkya Rahane, India’s vice-captain in Test cricket came into the limelight after his terrific years with RR. He was the mainstay of RR batting for many years. He was in the team when Rahul Dravid became the mentor of RR and it must have helped him a lot. 

Sanju Samson has been regarded by many as the most talented and gifted Indian player of this generation. Sanju definitely has flourished with RR. His exquisite shots are just amazing to witness. Sanju is the current captain of RR. 

Recently, they have bought the likes of Kartik Tyagi, Ankit Rajput, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Riyan Parag, Mayank Markande and so many youngsters who have a prosperous future ahead of them and RR has given them the platform to deliver. 

Spot-fixing scandal between CSK and Rajasthan Royals

It’s quite contradictory that, along with young promising talents, RR also had some disgusting players who had done shameful acts. Ankeet Chavan, Ajit Chandila, and India’s prime pace bowler then Sreesanth were banned for alleged spot-fixing. Though they were cleared of all the charges as they were not found guilty by Patiala House Court, BCCI never lifted the ban. 

In the wake of this, different new scandals and controversies emerged and RR along with CSK were banned from the IPL for the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Both made comeback in IPL 2018 after serving their ban. 

Some shocking decisions by RR team management  

RR has always been a spot of bother, whether on the field or off the field. They enlarged their problems in the 2020 IPL when they released world-class players like Ajinkya Rahane, Dhawal Kulkarni, Krishnappa Gowtham. 

In 2021, they also released Steve Smith and announced Sanju Samson as their captain. The team management must have some thoughts behind these moves, but to date, the moves have hurt them the most. 

Let’s have a look at Records 

Rajasthan has pulled off an outstanding chase of 224 runs in the 2020 IPL against the Punjab Kings. This is the highest successful chase by any team in the history of IPL. It was the same game when Rahul Tewatia played the innings of his lifetime. 

Most runs 

Most wickets 

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