IPL 4: Rajasthan Royals" Probable Eleven Against Deccan Chargers
After lifting the first IPL trophy, Rajasthan Royals faded away, in the next two editions.
With a new auction bringing in a new batch of players, RR will be hoping for a reversal in fortunes.
In considering the best eleven RR could possibly field against Deccan Chargers whom they play on Saturday, April 9, let's first take a look at the overseas players.
Beginning with skipper Shane Warne, the list has Johan Botha, Shaun Tait, Shane Watson, Paul Collingwood, Ross Taylor and Jacob Oram.
That's a brilliant selection and I would play all of them if I had the choice.
But I haven't, as I must restrict myself to just four of these seven players.
Warne, as skipper, cannot be omitted, and perforce I must leave out Botha, Collingwood and Oram.
I would have liked to have either Collingwood or Oram, for their all-round skills, but Taylor's brilliant form and Tait's raw pace left me no choice but to select them alongside Watson whose all-round credentials need no advertising.
Now for the onerous task of selecting seven Indians from the remaining lot who are: Swapnil Asnodkar, Ankeet Chavan, Aditya Dole, Rahul Dravid, Faiz Fazal, Sumit Narwal, Pankaj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Salunkhe, Siddharth Trivedi, D H Yagnik, Amit Singh, Stuart Binny, Deepak Chahar, Aakash Chopra, Nayan Doshi, Samad Fallah, Ashok Menaria, Amit Paunikar, Abhishek Raut and Pinal Shah.
I cannot ignore the claims of Dravid, Rahane, Chopra and Shah; the eight players I have selected thus far comprise pure bowlers in Warne and Tait, pure batsmen in Shah, Taylor, Dravid and Rahane, and all-rounders in Watson and Chopra.
Among the remaining three players, my first choice is Salunkhe, who can bat and bowl, and has played in a few IPL games.
Abhishek Raut also finds favour, for his dual ability of batting and bowling, as well as his past experience of IPL.
My surprise selection is Sumit Narwal, who can both bat and bowl, though unlike some others in the list, Narwal doesn't have IPL experience.
I have ignored Asnodkar who had brilliant debut season in IPL 1, when the diminutive opening bat played a major role in helping Rajasthan Royals win the title.
This team is very balanced, at least on paper.
The worst that can be said about the squad is that RR appear to depend a lot on aging players like Warne and Dravid, in what is essentially a young man's game.
With a new auction bringing in a new batch of players, RR will be hoping for a reversal in fortunes.
In considering the best eleven RR could possibly field against Deccan Chargers whom they play on Saturday, April 9, let's first take a look at the overseas players.
Beginning with skipper Shane Warne, the list has Johan Botha, Shaun Tait, Shane Watson, Paul Collingwood, Ross Taylor and Jacob Oram.
That's a brilliant selection and I would play all of them if I had the choice.
But I haven't, as I must restrict myself to just four of these seven players.
Warne, as skipper, cannot be omitted, and perforce I must leave out Botha, Collingwood and Oram.
I would have liked to have either Collingwood or Oram, for their all-round skills, but Taylor's brilliant form and Tait's raw pace left me no choice but to select them alongside Watson whose all-round credentials need no advertising.
Now for the onerous task of selecting seven Indians from the remaining lot who are: Swapnil Asnodkar, Ankeet Chavan, Aditya Dole, Rahul Dravid, Faiz Fazal, Sumit Narwal, Pankaj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Salunkhe, Siddharth Trivedi, D H Yagnik, Amit Singh, Stuart Binny, Deepak Chahar, Aakash Chopra, Nayan Doshi, Samad Fallah, Ashok Menaria, Amit Paunikar, Abhishek Raut and Pinal Shah.
I cannot ignore the claims of Dravid, Rahane, Chopra and Shah; the eight players I have selected thus far comprise pure bowlers in Warne and Tait, pure batsmen in Shah, Taylor, Dravid and Rahane, and all-rounders in Watson and Chopra.
Among the remaining three players, my first choice is Salunkhe, who can bat and bowl, and has played in a few IPL games.
Abhishek Raut also finds favour, for his dual ability of batting and bowling, as well as his past experience of IPL.
My surprise selection is Sumit Narwal, who can both bat and bowl, though unlike some others in the list, Narwal doesn't have IPL experience.
I have ignored Asnodkar who had brilliant debut season in IPL 1, when the diminutive opening bat played a major role in helping Rajasthan Royals win the title.
This team is very balanced, at least on paper.
The worst that can be said about the squad is that RR appear to depend a lot on aging players like Warne and Dravid, in what is essentially a young man's game.
Source...