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The Rajasthan Royals are a cricket team based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2008 as one of the initial eight IPL franchises, the team is based at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. The Royals are known to unearth obscure, high potential talent, as well as for their involvement in a number of controversies and scandals.
About the franchise :
The team that attracted the smallest bid when the IPL franchises were first sold, Rajasthan Royals emerged unlikely champions in the first season. Since then they have not played good quality cricket, reaching the playoffs only three times. They have also been hit by controversy off the field. In 2010 there was a court battle over ownership. In 2013, three of their players were arrested on charges of spot-fixing, and following an investigation, the franchise was suspended for two years for its involvement in illegal betting and match-fixing. The team’s record run-scorer is Ajinkya Rahane with 3098 runs, while the leading wicket-taker is Shane Watson, with 67 wickets.
Team's history:
Looking back at RR they were the winners of the first edition of the IPL back in 2008. Except that they have failed to even reach the finals in any of the seasons. Their positions in the last three editions of the IPL were seventh, eighth and seventh respectively.
Team's Owners:
Amisha Hathiramani, Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch among other co-owners.
Team's captains:
Shane Warne led in Royals’ victorious first season, and up until 2011, following which Rahul Dravid took over for two years. Shane Watson then captained briefly before handing over to Steven Smith in 2014. When Smith was banned for ball-tampering in 2018, Ajinkya Rahane replaced him as captain. Smith returned to lead in 2019, but after two poor seasons, the Royals released him ahead of the 2021 auction and named Sanju Samson the captain for the season.
IPL 2021 Squad
Evin Lewis, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (wk/c), Shivam Dube, Glenn Phillips, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Shreyas Gopal, Chetan Sakariya, Kuldip Yadav, Mustafizur Rahman, Jaydev Unadkat, Chris Morris, Manan Vohra, Liam Livingstone, Tabraiz Shamsi, KC Cariappa, Mahipal Lomror, Oshane Thomas, Riyan Parag, Mayank Markande, Anuj Rawat, Kartik Tyagi, Gerald Coetzee, Akash Singh
Retained Players:
Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Strategy for IPL 2022:
Going into the auction RR would want to develop a base for their team and start from the beginning. Apart from the inaugural season, they have never been a threat in any one of the editions. They would want to change that by bringing some explosive batsmen and all rounders in the squad.