Rahul Dravid was speaking after Rajasthan Royals' loss to Punjab Kings on Sunday.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) head coach Rahul Dravid has said that his team’s bowlers are to be equally blamed just as their batters following their 10-run loss to Punjab Kings (PBKS) in an IPL 2025 match on Sunday.
Rajasthan Royals, who have already been eliminated, have now lost 10 matches in IPL 2025 and are languishing in ninth place with six points from 13 matches. Eight of their last nine defeats have come while chasing totals. Rajasthan Royals were also in winnable positions in few of these chases, but ended up surrendering to the opposition in the end.
As far as their bowling is concerned, England pacer Jofra Archer has endured an inconsistent run in IPL 2025 and so also has Sandeep Sharma. Both of them have often been at the receiving end by conceding too many runs. Tushar Deshpande has also been underwhelming.
“We’ve got close, but we haven’t been able to finish the job. It’s been one of those kind of seasons where you always feel with the ball that we probably give 15-20 runs extra and then you’ve got yourself in some really good positions to win the games, but we haven’t been able to finish the job and a little bit around that lower, lower-middle order we just haven’t been able to click and get the big shots that we need,” Dravid said at the post-match press conference on Sunday.
“I mean, it’s been five games now where the margins have really one or two hits which you need in that phase, which, we just haven’t been able to do. So it’s not that we’ve been losing too many wickets, we’re still only five down today, but we just haven’t been able to hit those shots,” he added.
One instance of Rajasthan Royals failing to chase down a total was against Lucknow Super Giants, when they were asked to chase down 181. Rajasthan Royals needed 25 runs to win from 18 balls with eight wickets in hand. However, they failed to chase down the total as they were restricted to 178/5.
“There’s no point just blaming the batsman. I think with the ball also, to be honest, I didn’t think it was a 220 wicket, it was about a 195, 200 wicket, and we gave 20 runs extra. If we look at the numbers, we have probably not been good enough with the ball. Both at taking wickets and controlling runs. We are chasing 200-220 every game,” the former India coach explained.
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Rahul Dravid also hinted that there could be changes at Rajasthan Royals ahead of IPL 2026. “Still our batters, especially the openers, have been giving us good starts, but we have been unable to finish the job,” he said.
“We will have to work on it for the next year. A little bit in the fielding as well. Sometimes you look at a tournament and see only three wins, but if you look at the five close defeats. Not an excuse, but you can’t lose all five close matches. We have got good batting. In a year they will improve even more. Perhaps in the bowling, we will have to do something to improve,” the former India captain.
The Sanju Samson-led side will look to finish IPL 2025 on a high when they take on Chennai Super Kings in Delhi on Tuesday (May 20).
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