They were humiliated by Mumbai Indians last night at home.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra has taken a brutal dig at the Rajasthan Royals (RR) for their undecipherable auction choices ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. He criticised their move to go with only one international batter in their playing XI, the Windies player Shimron Hetmyer.
“I am thinking that once they decided to go with an all-Indian batting line-up, in which Samson was the most experienced and the oldest, with Shimron Hetmyer lower down the order – the only overseas batting option. Is that even a viable option?” the former batter raised questions.
The 47-year-old also discussed their misfiring IPL 2025 retentions. RR spent INR 61 crores to retain skipper Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Hetmyer, and Sandeep Sharma. None of them have had a standout season in this IPL 2025.
“I don’t think Dhruv Jurel would have fetched 14 at the auction. I don’t think Shimron Hetmyer would have got 11. So that’s 25 crore and if you think those two are worth 15, 16, or 17 in the auction put together, you still free up eight crore,” opined Chopra on the ESPNcricinfo Time Out show.
Their middle-order pillars, Jurel and Hetmyer, even failed thrice in consecutive matches to chase down a total after a promising start from RR opener Yashasvi Jaiswal. The pair failed twice to score nine runs in the final over against the Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants.
They also couldn’t chase 17 runs in the last two overs against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
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Moreover, the cricketer-turned-commentator opined that, instead of retaining these players, the Royals could have gone big for the spinners in the IPL 2025 auction. They could have retained veteran Yuzvendra Chahal, who was sold to the Punjab Kings for INR 18 crores.
The RR management could also have looked for the Afghanistan youngster Noor Ahmad, whom the Chennai Super Kings acquired by spending INR 10 crores.
“In fact, I would also invest in the two Indian spinners. Your spinners have to be Indians most of the time unless there is Rashid [Khan]. Most [Indian] spinners are generally very expensive. If you’re looking at Chahal, you can’t get him again. He went for 18 crore. Noor Ahmad was one guy they should have, could have gone for. They didn’t really target him. They went for Wanindu. See, Wanindu has been a phenomenal bowler for Sri Lanka but his returns in the IPL are very middling,” he stated.
Notably, Wanindu Hasaranga has scalped only 10 wickets in eight matches so far. Whereas, Chahal and Noor have bagged 13 and 15 wickets for their respective franchises in this edition.
With only three wins in 11 matches, RR have been eliminated from the IPL 2025 playoffs race. After Chennai, RR are the second team to be eliminated from this season, following their 100-run thrashing loss last night against Mumbai Indians at home.
However, the Men in Pink will look to finish their season on a high. They will clash with the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens Stadium on May 4.
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