"The replacements aren't even close to them" - Aakash Chopra on the Rajasthan Royals' potential challenges in IPL 2025

Former India player Aakash Chopra has picked the Rajasthan Royals' (RR) inability to find ideal replacements for their prominent released players as one of their potential challenges in IPL 2025. He opined that the franchise's new signings aren't even close to the likes of Jos Buttler, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin.

RR retained Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer and Sandeep Sharma for a combined sum of ₹79 crore ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. They spent ₹40.70 crore at the mega auction last November to acquire 14 more players to assemble a 20-member squad.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra', the former India opener reckoned that the Rajasthan Royals' IPL 2025 squad is significantly weaker than their last season's lineup.

"They lost four players in the auction. They decided not to retain Buttler, and Boult, Chahal and Ashwin went apart from him. When so many such kinds of players leave, you ask how you would replace them. The replacements aren't even close to them," he said (3:45).

Chopra pointed out that Shimron Hetmyer is the only overseas batter in the Royals' squad.

"It's a completely Indian batting lineup (apart from Shimron Hetmyer). You had retained your entire batting lineup. You didn't make any additions. You added just Nitish Rana and you didn't pick any overseas batter. So an entire Indian batting lineup and no course correction or addition in the auction, slightly surprising from my point of view," he observed.

The Rajasthan Royals have only six overseas players in their IPL 2025 squad. Apart from retaining Hetmyer, they bought Jofra Archer (₹12.50 crore), Maheesh Theekshana (₹4.40 crore), Wanindu Hasaranga (₹5.25 crore), Fazalhaq Farooqi (₹2 crore) and Kwena Maphaka (₹1.50 crore) at the auction.

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"They find themselves in a similar position again" - Aakash Chopra on the absence of a quality all-rounder in the Rajasthan Royals' IPL 2025 squad

Wanindu Hasaranga could play the all-rounder's role for the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025. [P/C: iplt20.com]

In the same video, Aakash Chopra noted that a quality all-rounder's absence could be another of the Rajasthan Royals' stumbling blocks in IPL 2025.

"Another thing that was troubling me last year was that every team used to have an extra batter and bowler after the Impact Player rule was introduced as they had one or two all-rounders, but this team did not have any. It seemed like they were playing with six batters and five bowlers. They find themselves in a similar position again," he said (4:45).

The cricketer-turned-analyst pointed out that Wanindu Hasaranga hasn't yet proved himself with the bat in the IPL.

"I am surprised how that happened after a mega auction. You are considering Wanindu Hasaranga as an all-rounder. He is not really an all-rounder at the IPL level yet. He might have a great season this time. However, thus far he has done very well with the ball from time to time, but as a batter, he has not fired," Chopra observed.

Aakash Chopra opined that the lack of an Indian spinner apart from Kumar Kartikeya could be an issue for the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025. He added that the franchise would also be overly dependent on Jofra Archer in the seam-bowling department, with the England pacer's recent inconsistency compounding their problems.