IPL 2022: This Is An Exciting And Strong Squad - Rajasthan Royals’ Kumar Sangakkara Hopeful Of A Turnaround
Published - 17 Mar 2022, 11:55 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:06 AM
Rajasthan Royals (RR) director of cricket operations Kumar Sangakkara has lauded the franchise officials for doing a great job in the IPL 2022 mega auction and said that he is hopeful of a turnaround in the fortunes of the franchise thanks to an exciting and strong squad.
The Indian Premier League (IPL 2022) begins on March 26 with the 70 league matches to be played across four venues in Maharashtra. There are two new teams joining the tournament from this year onwards- Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants, making IPL a 10-team league.
Meanwhile, the Rajasthan Royals had an adventurous time in the IPL 2022 mega auction. They had retained Sanju Samson as their captain and along with him, Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal were retained ahead of the auction also.
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They bought some excellent players in Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shimron Hetmyer, and pacers Navdeep Saini and Prasidh Krishna amongst the more well-known names in the auction. The surprising pick was the bagging of Devdutt Padikkal for a price of INR 7.75 crore who has played at the top of the order mostly.
“We know we had quite a bit of work to do in the off-season with regards to our team. I think we managed to identify the key areas which needed our attention and having had a proper process when it comes to selecting players at the auction, we managed to kind of hit the markers that we set for ourselves. I think the franchise has done an amazing job to put this exciting and strong squad together,” said the Sri Lankan legend in a team statement.
We Have Secured Depth In Every Department: Kumar Sangakkara On RR’s IPL 2022 Auction Performance
Kumar Sangakkara was satisfied with the picks made in the auction, in which he was also present. He felt that the presence of the experienced spin duo of Ravi Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal will make a huge difference. He also said that the franchise has covered every department with backups for all roles.
“We’ve got the two best spinners in the IPL in terms of off-spin and leg-spin in Chahal and Ashwin. We have Boult, Prasidh, Saini, Coulter-Nile, McCoy, which makes up for a very exciting pace unit supported by of course the retentions of Yashasvi, Samson and Buttler.
We have secured depth in every department, with Neesham, Mitchell and van der Dussen being exciting cricketers. We’ve got some really exciting and young cricketers from India as well. The main thing is that we have a very competent side. We tried to get the core right and get the right players for the roles,” Sangakkara said.
Rajasthan Royals will face off against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first match of IPL 2022 on March 28 in Pune.
Rajasthan Royals squad for IPL 2022: Sanju Samson (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell
