Rajasthan Royals were the second team to be knocked out of the IPL 2025.
The champions of the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) edition, Rajasthan Royals will rue their performance in the latest season. They had an excellent cycle between 2022-24, where they made it to the playoffs twice, and reached the final once. IPL 2025, however, turned out to be a massive disappointment.
Rajasthan Royals were knocked out of the playoffs race after losing eight games. They currently sit in the bottom two with three wins in 12 games. RR could’ve been in contention if not for those four run-chases they lost from winning positions in end overs. Captain Sanju Samson missing quite a few games due to injury made things worse.
SEE IPL 2025 PLAYOFFS SCENARIOS FOR ALL TEAMS
The Royals’ issues started with the sub-par IPL 2025 mega auction they had in November last year. Their team management failed to cover the bases and it cost them big in this competition.
Following this disastrous season, we can expect them to make some tough decisions. Here we take a look at four players Rajasthan Royals could release ahead of the next auction.
Rajasthan Royals showed immense faith in their retentions, even choosing to release Jos Buttler. One of the retained players, Shimron Hetmyer, had three pretty decent seasons as a finisher. But he couldn’t live up to that faith, failing to get his side over the finish line.
RR lost four matches from winning positions, and Hetmyer could not do much in those. He has scored 216 runs from 11 innings in IPL 2025, averaging just 21.60 and striking at 146.93. His strike rate is lesser than the average season strike rate and that’s not good enough for a finisher.
Rajasthan bought two Sri Lankan spinners for a combined sum of INR 9.65 crore. In a time where teams hardly go for overseas spinners, RR’s decision to collect two made no sense. Maheesh Theekshana has played 11 games in the season, and has picked 11 scalps at an economy of 9.76 and average of 37.27.
The Royals might keep Wanindu Hasaranga as he has the bigger upside on skill set. By releasing Theekshana, they can save INR 4.40 crore.
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Fazalhaq Farooqi was picked as a back-up pace option but the Afghanistan seamers looked all over the place in limited opportunities. He played four games in the tournament and failed to pick a wicket. The left-arm pacer conceded at 12.21 in 14 overs he bowled.
There are several overseas bowlers much better in quality that went unsold in the auction. RR would be better off looking for another seamer to support Jofra Archer.
Rajasthan Royals spent INR 6.50 crore to acquire the services of Tushar Deshpande. The right-arm pacer had two pretty decent seasons for Chennai Super Kings in 2023-24, picking 38 wickets from 29 games. Understandably, RR had high expectations from him.
Deshpande, however, couldn’t deliver this season. He managed to claim only six wickets from eight games while conceding runs at 11.25 rpo.
The above four players combine for INR 23.90 crore. Add in some fringe players and Rajasthan Royals can go into the next auction with a good purse to rebuild the squad.
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