Rajasthan Royals - Preview

So, Rajasthan Royals it is this time..... They were the surprise champions of the inaugural edition of the IPL. Sadly though, they could not repeat that feat last year, infact, they did not even reach the semis.

The team is jointly owned by Ranjit Bharthakur ( Co-Founder of Singapore based Globally Managed Services ) , Manoj Badale and the now popular Shilpa Shetty ( who can afford to forget her now after the Big Brother Episode and the Gere Scandal ). Sean Morris is the Chief Executive Officer of the team. They made two great purchases , that of Australians Damien Martyn ( Yup, he's back too after his ICL stint ) and Adam Voges. Mohammed Kaif was bought out well before the auction itself.

Let us now have a look at the Indian Players in this Team :-

Abishek Raut

Amit Singh

Anup Revandkar

Ashraf Makda

Dinesh Salunkhe

Kamran Khan

Mahesh Rawat

Munaf Patel

Naman Ojha

Niraj Patel

Paras Dogra

Paul Valthaty

Raiphi Gomez

Ravindra Jadeja

Siddharth Trivedi

Srideep Mangela

Swapnil Asnodkar

Yusuf Pathan

One look at this team and you may think its made of just a bunch of underdogs who were all bought very cheaply by the team. But, Shane Warne showed us all what a magical group of people they are. They have no great reputation and this probably is the reason behind their success. They have not buckled under loads of expectation. Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja along with Munaf Patel , have all played for India and can win games single-handedly.

Let us now move on to the foreign players : -

Shane Warne (Captain)

Graeme Smith

Shane Watson

Damien Martyn

Dmitri Mascarenhas

Morne Morkel

Shaun Tait

Johan Botha

Adam Voges

Every single one of these foreign players in special in some way or the other. Interestingly, 5 of these players are captains of various teams and hence can understand the game better than the rest. Mascarenhas can massacre any bowling attack (we haven't forgotten that 30 off Yuvi's over, have we ? ) and Tait can crush a few toes. But the absence of Pakistani players like Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal have dented their team.

So, overall it is a power-packed side having the potential to become the champions as they showed us two years ago. It'll be interesting to see what new tactics Warne comes up with this year.

Next week , the Mumbai Indians.

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Posted in: cricket,Graeme Smith,India,IPL,IPL - Team preview,Kaif,M. Morkel,Martyn,Munaf Patel,Ravindra Jadeja,RR,Shane Warne,Shane Watson,Tait,Voges,Yusuf pathan