Courtesy: BCCI/IPL/Google
On Thursday, May 1, Rajasthan Royals (RR) were eliminated from the race to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 playoffs after losing to Mumbai Indians (MI) by 100 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. After RR missed out on making the playoffs, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra called out the auction strategy of the franchise, stating the middle order batters Dhruv Jurel and Shimron Hetmyer shouldn’t have spent INR 25 crore on retaining them.
Notably, before the IPL 2025 mega auction, RR retained six players, namely Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, and Sandeep Sharma for a combined INR 79 crore. Out of total purse of INR 120 crore, Dhruv Jurel was paid INR 14 crore, while Shimron Hetmyer was given INR 11 crore, to stay the part of the RR squad for ongoing season, which didn’t turn out out to be a good investment due to the middling performances from both the batters.
I don't think Dhruv Jurel would have fetched 14 at the auction: Aakash Chopra
In his 10 innings during the IPL 2025, Dhruv Jurel has managed to score 249 runs at an average of 35.57 and a strike-rate of 147.33, but in the crunch situations, he often came second best just like Shimron Hetmyer, who has got 187 runs to his name at an average of just 20.77 and a strike-rate of 150.80. While speaking on ESPNcricinfo Time Out show, Aakash Chopra said, “I don't think Dhruv Jurel would have fetched 14 at the auction. I don't think Shimron Hetmyer would have got 11.”
“So that's 25 crore, and if you think those two are worth 15, 16, or 17 in the auction put together, you still free up 8 crore,” he added. The problems have compounded for RR, not only because some of their retained stars didn’t perform quite well in the IPL 2025, but also because they didn’t manage to buy back the likes of Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Avesh Khan with some of them playing incredibly for their new teams.
After becoming the second team to get knocked out of the IPL 2025 playoffs race, RR have three matches remaining in the season, to ensure that they finish in the best possible spot outside the top four.
