SWOT Analysis IPL 2024: Can Rajasthan Royals Reclaim Lost Glory? | Cricket News

The 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is just around the corner and the champions of the inaugural IPL campaign, Rajasthan Royals (RR) will be hoping to claim their second title after winning the first-ever edition in 2008. Regarded as the perennial underdogs, the Royals made the playoffs in 2008, 2013, 2015, 2018, and most recently in 2022 when they finished as runners-up. Last season saw them fall short of a playoff spot by two points after finishing fifth in the standings with 14 points thanks to seven wins and just as many defeats.

In IPL 2024, a reinvigorated RR team under Sanju Samson will aim to lift the coveted trophy again after more than 15 years. Just before the IPL mini-auction in December 2023, RR secured Avesh Khan’s signature by trading Devdutt Padikkal to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

Meanwhile, their latest signings at the mini-auction included the likes of Rovman Powell (INR 7.4 crore), Shubham Dubey (INR 5.8 crore), Tom Kohler-Cadmore (INR 40 lakh), Abid Mushtaq (INR 20 lakh) and Nandre Burger (INR 50 lakh).

As per the two-week schedule announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), RR begin their IPL 2024 season opener against LSG at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on March 24.

While RR gears up for another exciting IPL season, let’s take a look at their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Strength

The explosive opening duo of Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal is one of the strongest opening pairs in the league and skipper Sanju Samson at No.3 is the icing on the cake.

Averaging over 35, the aforementioned trio cumulatively accounted for 1579 and 1379 runs in the 2022 and 2023 IPL seasons, respectively.

It’s safe to say that RR’s top three can be banked on for fruitful returns this season as well and the addition of Rovman Powell will further act as a boost to their already settled batting unit.

The Rajasthan franchise also has a quality spin department. With the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Adam Zampa at their disposal, RR’s spin unit is perhaps one of the strongest and most versatile in IPL 2024.

Weakness

The fact that RR’s batting line-up is a tad bit top-heavy is something opponent teams will target, knowing fully well that a couple of early and decisive breakthroughs would put the Royals on the back foot with the likes of Jaiswal, Samson, and Buttler back in the dugout.

Add to that, the Royals’ not-so-consistent finishers like Shimron Hetmyer as well as Riyan Parag, and it’s easy to understand why a lot will depend on how RR’s batters fare as far as success for the inaugural champions in IPL 2024 is concerned.

Another aspect of the team that limits the Royals is their lack of genuine quality all-rounders. Ravichandran Ashwin and Abid Mushtaq are the only two all-rounders in the squad, which doesn’t help the balance of the team should they need to change and experiment with their line-up a few weeks in the season.

Opportunities

The upcoming season does offer plenty of opportunities with many players in the RR squad having a point to prove. Shubham Dubey, the 29-year-old Vidarbha southpaw has had a strong impact in domestic cricket courtesy of his hard-hitting prowess. Unsurprisingly, RR splashed INR 5.8 crore in a bidding war at the mini-auction to secure his services and he will be keen to repay the faith shown in him by the Royals.

With Shimron Hetmyer heading into the season with poor form and Riyan Parag yet to have an impactful IPL performance despite his domestic exploits, Shubham can be the consistent power-hitting option that RR have been searching for.

Parag, who has had a lean period with Rajasthan for a few seasons now, will be raring to set the record straight considering he was the top run-getter in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2023-24. The Assam batter smashed 510 runs in 10 innings at an impressive average of 85 and a stunning strike rate of 182.79.

Samson and Chahal will hope that a good season helps them secure a spot in India’s squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in June. While Samson has been in and out of the T20I setup, Chahal last featured in a 20-over match for India in August 2023.

Threat

Prasidh Krishna has been ruled out of IPL 2024 with an injury, but RR have plenty of backups in the pace bowling department.

However, it must be noted that RR played the 2023 season with practically the same squad that reached the final in 2022. Unfortunately, their limitations and the absence of depth in both departments were exposed last year when they could not qualify for the playoffs.

Ahead of the new season, RR’s batting is a bit vulnerable without any adequate backups. They don’t have many options if one or two among Jaiswal, Samson, Buttler, Hetmyer, and Powell get injured or underperform.

Probable Playing XII:

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma (impact sub)