Rajasthan Royals have a history of backing young talent and those players eventually thriving. We take a look at four best domestic players from their IPL 2025 squad.
The inaugural champions of the Indian Premier League, Rajasthan Royals will be aiming for their second title in the upcoming season. Over the last few years, they have brought stability to the franchise and have been able to get better results.
IPL 2022 was their best season since 2008, ending up as the runners-up. They missed the top-four spot by a narrow margin in the following season while last year, they made another playoff appearance.
Rajasthan Royals have brought back Rahul Dravid as the head coach and there is no one better to guide and nurture young talent. The Royals franchise has a history of investing in lesser known domestic players. You could go back to the days of Swapnil Asnodkar and Siddharth Trivedi or more recent examples of Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel.
As we gear up for IPL 2025, let’s take a look at four of the best domestic players in the Rajasthan Royals squad.
The 30-year-old Vidarbha batter has an excellent record in the shorter format and is likely to feature in the starting XI for RR this upcoming edition. Shubham Dubey averages 38.35 and strikes at 152.69 in T20 cricket, having scored 652 runs from 26 innings.
In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he struck 134 runs from four innings at 181, including one half century. The left-hand batter played four games for the Royals last year, though couldn’t make a big impression. Looking at their squad, Dubey could get decent opportunities this year.
Kumar Kartikeya was one of the finds of the 2022 IPL season. A left-arm spinner, who can bowl orthodox and wrist spin, Kartikeya is a rare commodity. He played 12 matches for Mumbai Indians in two seasons but could not make enough impact.
In domestic cricket, however, he has been terrific for Madhya Pradesh across all three formats. Kartikeya picked 17 wickets in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy from 10 games at an economy of 7.63. He was superb in the Vijay Hazare Trophy as well, bagging nine scalps from five games at just 3.78 rpo.
ALSO READ:
Akash Madhwal is another find of Mumbai Indians scouts. He had an impressive season in 2023, where he snared 14 wickets from eight games at an economy of 8.58. Last year, he played only five games and was expensive.
However, there is a lot to like about him. Madhwal is pretty good at nailing his yorkers and is deceptively fast and skiddy. He was the top wicket-taker for Uttarakhand in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, picking eight scalps from five outings at 8.73.
Tushar Deshpande does have an international status but has only played two T20 internationals. The right-arm pacer was a regular feature in the Chennai Super Kings side for the past two seasons.
Deshpande picked 21 wickets from 16 games in 2023 at an economy of 9.92, and followed it with 17 scalps in IPL 2024 at 8.83 rpo. Rajasthan Royals had to spend INR 6.50 crore to secure him in the auction and is likely to form the pace attack alongside Jofra Archer and Sandeep Sharma in IPL 2025.
