IPL 2023: What explains the Rajasthan Royals slump

Not too long ago Sanju Samson’s men were at the top of the table with five wins in five and were the side to beat this season. However, in the last eight games, they have only won two and look like a side who have completely lost momentum.

When asked about their form after the game against RCB, Sanju replied, “That is a great question, actually. I was thinking about it and where it went wrong. Sorry, I do not have an answer for that.” The men in pink not only have to win their one remaining game but also hope for some of the results to go their way.

Not clicking as a collective

Sanju Samson when asked if they should have scored more than 214 against the SRH, again replied, “That’s a great question… I don’t know.” It was the highest score chased down in Jaipur in the IPL which indicates they probably had enough. Their bowlers struggled to restrict the opposition.

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Glenn Maxwell, third right, celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of Rajasthan Royals’ Shimron Hetmyer, left, during the Indian Premier League cricket match. (AP Photo)

Earlier in the season Mumbai Indians chased 213 runs with ease which was the highest chase at the Wankhede. Once again after posting a mammoth total on the board, the side could not defend it.

Against Gujarat Titans, the batting line-up just did not show up as they were bundled out for 118 runs giving the bowlers no chance on a decent batting wicket. Titans finished the chase in just 14 overs on the same surface.

Against Lucknow Super Giants after the bowlers did well to restrict KL Rahul’s side to 155 the batting order struggled to chase those runs down. Despite an 87-run opening partnership, the remaining batting order could not see through the job and gave away two points.

Strange tactical decisions

The men in pink have shot themselves in the foot with the substitutes they have made and shuffling the batting order time and again. Against SRH, specialist death bowler Obed Mckoy was substituted in the 15th over of the innings which meant he could not complete his quota of four. However, skipper Samson used him for only one over and chose the inexperienced Kuldip Yadav over Mckoy to bowl the all-important 19th over. The Indian youngster was bashed by Glenn Phillips for 24 runs.

Rajasthan Royals players Yuzi Chahal and Trent Boult. (File)

Against the Titans when the side was 60-3 in the seventh over the Royals management chose to send R Ashwin and then substitute Riyan Parag who is averaging 11.70 with a strike rate of 107.41 this season ahead of Shimron Hetmyer and in-form Dhruv Jurel. Both Ashwin and Parag could not stay for long at the crease adding further pressure on Jurel and Hetmyer as more wickets were added to the column when they came to bat in.

This was not the only occasion where they made a head-scratching decision which probably cost the game. In a close game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore with 36 required off 13 balls when Hetmyer fell the team chose to send in R Ashwin to finish the game when they had the power of Jason Holder in the tank.

Rajasthan Royals’ Jos Buttler plays a shot.

When asked about it after the game Samson said, “A six and a four in the Ahmedabad game and we felt we could count on his (Ashwin) experience.”

Once Ashwin fell the Royals were still in the game with 10 required from two balls and they chose to make a substitute and send in the inexperienced player Abdul Basith instead of Holder.

Sending Holder would not have assured them two points however, with his ability to strike the ball cleanly he would have at least given them a chance.

Heavy traffic at the top

Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal; and in their last game they added Joe Root to their batting order. This is a formidable batting line-up however, all of these players have done well in T20s in batting in the top three.

The men in pink have shot themselves in the foot. (File)

Padikkal – not for lack of trying – could not give the same returns for what he did at Royal Challengers when he opened the batting. He played the bulk of his innings at number four for the Royals where he scored 243 runs at an average of 20.25 and a strike rate of 120.30.

Skipper Samson’s numbers too fall off a cliff when he is batting at other numbers apart from three. Coming in at four he scored 683 runs at an average of 21.34 at a strike rate of 127.66 compared to his numbers at three where he scored 2452 runs at an average of 36.60 and a strike rate of 141.49.

Sanju Samson clicking photos with his fans, holding a spectator’s phone. (File)

When it comes to Joe Root who made his debut in the last game, he has hardly batted anywhere in T20 cricket apart from the top three and against SRH Root did not come out to bat even after the third wicket fell. This begs the question of what his role in the side is.

Who is bowling at death?

The Royals have gone for 10.63 at the death this season so far. They have used Trent Boult upfront when he was available and finished him off before the 15th more often than not. This meant that Samson had to rely upon an inexperienced Indian pace bowling contingent to do the job at the backend. Kuldip Yadav, KM Asif and Kuldeep Sen still don’t have the experience or skills at this level to bowl at the death and get away against the power hitters of the other sides.

This was not the only occasion where RR made a head-scratching decision which probably cost the game. (File)

Sandeep Sharma though did well against Super Kings bowling the final over. Throughout his career he has had his share of issues bowling at the death as he has a career economy over 11s in this phase. He had majority of success with the new ball for his previous franchises. Holder was given the chance of closing the game out against the Mumbai Indians where he was given a fairly doable task of defending 17 in the final over which he gave away in three balls bowling full tosses and struggled to restrict the teams when bowling first in this phase as well in other games.

Samson has used Chahal on the odd occasion at the death which worked well. He single-handedly on occasion has turned the games for them. However, lack of support and improper execution of their yorkers and slower ball variations in the last few games from the rest of the bowling group has cost the Royals.