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The Rajasthan Royals are perhaps the only team who have a retired cricketer, Shane Warne, as their biggest draw. And that’s no offence to the likes of Graeme Smith, Younus Khan or Shane Watson.
The think tank of the Jaipur-based franchise has named spin wizard Warne as captain, player and coach, the only such case in a fray which boasts of several of the game’s shrewd thinkers as coaches.
The UK-based Emerging Media may be the franchise holders of the team, but the side is better known as Lalit Modi’s brainchild, the high-profile chairman of the IPL, who is almost synonymous with the league now.
Almost half of the team’s 25-member roster may comprise of unheralded names picked up from either India’s Under-19 World Cup winning squad or the state Ranji team. But reputations often count for nothing in this form of the game —as a ragtag India’s triumph in the World Twenty20 championship showed last year.
The addition of England’s Dimitri Mascarenhas in the second auction has given a solid balance to the team, because he is capable of doing some mighty damage with the willow.
Up the order, there is no dearth of solidity either with the duo of Smith and Australian veteran Justin Langer coming out to open. While the middle order throws the names of Younus Khan, Mohammad Kaif and Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal in to the mix.
The pace attack can also pose a few problems with the gangly South African Morne Morkel, Watson and the awkward left-armer Sohail Tanvir coming to the party. India seamer Munaf Patel can be quite an accurate customer, while Mascarenhas’ medium pace will come in extremely handy.
And when you have Warne to provide the change of pace, anything can happen.
Sport Extra prediction: A relatively low-profile team, but don’t write them off completely.
Rajasthan Royals
Owner: UK-based Emerging Media
Bought for: $76 million (Dhs 279m)
Designated player: None.
Most expensive player: Mohammad Kaif (Ind) $675,000
(Dhs 2.4m)
Player/coach: Shane Warne
Squad: Shane Warne (captain), Justin Langer, Shane Watson, Graeme Smith, Morne Morkel, Dimitri Mascarenhas, M. Kaif, Munaf Patel, Taruwar Kohli, Pankaj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Sumit Khatri, Ravindra Jadeja, Anup Revandkar, Swapnil Asnodkar, Niraj Patel, Parag More, Aditya Angle, Mahesh Rawat, Dinesh Salunke, Siddharth Trivedi, Younus Khan, Kamran Akmal, Sohail Tanvir, Darren Lehmann
Player to watch: Dimitri Mascarenhas
The smile and the earrings effectively mask the ruthlessness that Dimitri Mascarenhas can display with the bat – ask Yuvraj Singh. In hitting the Indian for five sixes in an over during their tour of England last summer, Mascarenhas showed he is an asset in the shortest version of the game. Coming in down the order, he can unnerve the opposition and may prove to be a real match-winner.
Fixture List
April 19 Delhi Daredevils Delhi
April 21 Kings XI Punjab Jaipur
April 24 Deccan Chargers Hyderabad
April 26 Bangalore Royal Challengers Bangalore
May 1 Kolkata Knight Riders Jaipur
May 4 Chennai Super Kings Jaipur
May 7 Mumbai Indians Mumbai
May 9 Deccan Chargers Jaipur
May 11 Delhi Daredevils Jaipur
May 17 Bangalore Royal Challengers Jaipur
May 20 Kolkata Knight Riders Kolkata
May 24 Chennai Super Kings Chennai
May 26 Mumbai Indians Jaipur
May 28 Kings XI Punjab Mohali
May 30 First Semi-Final Mumbai
May 31 Second Semi-Final Mumbai
June 1 Final Mumbai
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