5 Players Rajasthan Royals (RR) Can Release Ahead Of IPL 2023

Rajasthan Royals lost to Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2022 final by seven wickets on May 29 in Ahmedabad.

The Sanju Samson-led side played an aggressive brand of cricket throughout the tournament as the franchise made their first IPL final appearance after winning the title in the inaugural season.

RR opener Jos Buttler scored 863 runs in 17 innings at 57.53 with four centuries and as many fifties to bag the orange cap.

Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal scalped 27 wickets in 17 matches at 19.52 to win the purple cap.

Rajasthan Royals were highly reliant on Jos Buttler to score the majority of the runs and lacked collective efforts in the batting order.

Let us look at five players Rajasthan Royals could release ahead of the next auction.

5 Players Rajasthan Royals (RR) Can Release Ahead Of IPL 2023

1) Rassie van der Dussen

The South African international batter’s presence was limited to the dugout of Rajasthan Royals.

Van der Dussen played just three games for the Sanju Samson-led side this season, scoring 22 runs in three innings.

With the likes of Jos Buttler, Shimron Hetmyer and James Neesham available for the overseas slots, the South African was overlooked and given limited opportunities.

The 33-year-old was amongst the six South African players who missed the Bangladesh Test series in March-April to join their respective IPL teams in Mumbai.

2) Obed McCoy

McCoy played his maiden IPL season this year and picked two wickets on debut against KKR in a crunch situation.

The West Indies left-arm pacer was taken to cleaners by compatriot Rovman Powell. When the Capitals needed 36 to win in the last over against Rajasthan, Powell hammered three sixes off McCoy in the first three balls.

However, a controversy in the Capitals camp over the waist height no-ball helped McCoy to escape the bludgeoning.

McCoy picked 11 wickets in seven games at an economy rate of 9.17 with best figures of 3/23. He played the IPL 2022 final against Gujarat Titans, where he failed to maintain the pressure, conceding 26 runs in 3.1 overs.

3) Karun Nair

Nair, who returned to the Rajasthan outfit after seven years, played just three games for the IPL 2022 runners-up this season.

The Karnataka batter returned with scores of 3 and 13 in a couple of innings against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Nair was a prolific run-scorer for the Royals in 2014, scoring 330 runs in 11 innings in the middle order. He also captained Delhi Capitals in three games in IPL 2017 when regular skipper Zaheer Khan was unavailable.

4) Navdeep Saini

Saini picked three wickets in two games for the Royals this year with his economy rate of 12.

Saini was hit by Royal Challengers Bangalore wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed as the pace bowler conceded 30 runs in his last two overs against RCB.

Saini was benched for the remaining season with Prasidh Krishna being the frontline seam bowler for the Royals.

5) Daryl Mitchell

Mitchell played a couple of games in the IPL 2022, batting in the middle-order. The New Zealand batter scored 16 and 17 against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians respectively.

During the IPL 2022 playoffs, Mitchell left the Rajasthan Royals squad to join New Zealand’s Test squad for the three-match Test series against England in their backyard.