IPL 2021 auction: Three cricketers Rajasthan Royals are likely to release
Rajasthan Royals endured a terrible IPL 2020 season where they ended at the last position in the points table. Despite boasting of a terrific overseas quota of players that had the likes of Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, and Jofra Archer, RR couldn’t shine well in the season. They never seemed to form the settled combination and kept on struggling with their various issues. Talking of the overseas star players, Jofra Archer brought his ultimate best on the table, in comparison to other foreigners.
The painful thing for the Royals was that their skipper Steve Smith even failed to rise on the occasions when there was a desperate need in the team. Having 12 points at the end of the league stage, RR stood last with an NRR of -0.569. They remained victorious on six occasions and failed to shine in the rest of the matches. In the same light, let’s have a look at players RR might release ahead of the IPL 2021 auction.
3. David Miller
David Miller might be one another name who would lose his spot with Rajasthan Royals ahead of the IPL 2021 auction. The team combination couldn’t just fit in David Miller in this season, and he got just one match in IPL 2020 with Royals. Caught in the hands of luck, Miller had to return to the pavilion without even facing one ball as he got run out. Miller has endured some fine seasons in the history of the cash-rich league with KXIP, but his tenure with RR didn’t come up well. Therefore, the Royals might not retain him in the upcoming season.
2. Robin Uthappa
Rajasthan Royals suffered big time with their middle-order woes as none of the batsmen took responsibility to get the team over the line. Considered as one of their star batsmen, Uthappa also failed to make big for his team. He scored just 196 runs in 12 games at a poor average of 16.33 and a strike rate of 119.52. Keeping in mind Uthappa’s previous stats in IPL, the batsman has had great seasons in the league. In fact, in 2014, he was in awe-inspiring form as he emerged as Orange Cap winner with 660 runs in his bag.
1. Steve Smith
It may come as a surprise, but if reports are believed to be true, skipper Steve Smith would no longer be retained by the Rajasthan team. It has been reported that he couldn’t perform as per the expectations of team management, both as a skipper and a batsman. Though he started with some fifties in IPL 2020 against CSK and KXIP, he just lost his way thereafter. Smith ended his campaign with 311 runs at an average of 25.91 and a strike rate of 131.22. He was retained in 2018 at a massive price of INR 12.5 crores.
Steve Smith unlikely to be retained by Rajasthan Royals, He was the only one retained by them last time for 12.5 Cr . Sanju Samson is likely to be the new captain.
Deadline for all the franchise to submit the list of retained players is 20th January.#IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/DpSSUZDQyD— Thunder Downunder ♞ (@TheYorkerBall) January 11, 2021
