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The Rajasthan Royals (RR) are one of the teams that boast of a heavy batting line-up̦ — which makes up for their relatively weaker middl-order from the previous season.
After retaining the trio of Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, and a young Yashasvi Jaiswal, the Royals focused on acquiring Indian talent at the IPL 2022 auction.
With the likes of Devdutt Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Jos Buttler in the squad, Rajasthan will look to solve their No. 3 conundrum ahead of the start of the tournament.
The question is whether they will persist with Sanju Samson or bring in one of their openers to strengthen the middle-order by asking their skipper to bat at No. 4.
Here's a quick look at the potential No. 3 options for RR.
#3 Jos Buttler
Although Jos Buttler was their opener in IPL 2021, the addition of Padikkal poses the question of who will open with Jaiswal, who seems to be a fixture for the time being.
The only disadvantage of slotting the gloveman at No. 3 is risking two left-handed batters at the top who are relatively short on experience. This is a calculated risk RR will have to mull over.
#2 Sanju Samson
RR skipper Sanju Samson has scored a majority of his runs in the IPL batting at No. 3. The Kerala wicketkeeper-batter has amassed 1892 runs from 56 innings batting at that slot and is most likely to hold on to it.
Should this be the case, Rajasthan may get Buttler to play at No. 4 which will dent their opening order when they face top-class bowling attacks.
#1 Yashasvi Jaiswal
Another option that may work in their favor is to have a young Jaiswal walk in at No. 3. This would stabilize the opening with Padikkal and Buttler. Samson can slot himself in at No. 4, a position he has batted in before in the tournament.
This also strengthens the middle-order with the likes of Shimron Hetmeyer, Rassie van der Dussen and James Neesham taking the next couple of spots.
RR's squad for IPL 2022: Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell
