Royals: Not flamboyant, yet deserving

Mercury is rising and so is the adrenalin. Reasons are obvious – the searing sun and the spectacular IPL have blended together to whip out a tempting delight. A day to go and all the nine league teams are spinning themselves hard in the training sessions while fans are busy buying tickets and cluttering social networking sites rooting for the teams off the field. Wonder what magnitude the mania would reach once the event actually kicks off on the 4^th of April.

A redo of the IPL ad flicks, official sites, contests and most importantly of the team has brought forth a broth that’s fresh and sizzling. Looking at the mix of players of all the teams, I find options available to the Rajasthan Royals as most convincing. With no over the top line-up, its always exciting to watch the Royals take the field as there is no predictable match performer and one has to wait for the match to witness the unknown star of the day.

Shane Warne’s absence will have an affect but not necessarily a negative one. No doubt, Rahul Dravid & Warne are like chalk & cheese but Dravid’s style of captaincy whose highlight would be his sublime fortitude, would put forth an effective and successful team culture, I am sure. The new entrants, Brad Hogg & Brad Hodge, have been an intelligent inclusion. Both the Aussies had a successful run in T-20 leagues – the BBL & BPL. Averaging 47.50 and 43.25 in BBL & BPL respectively, Hodge did exceedingly well to take Barisal Burners into the finals. Importantly, his ability to adjust on the Asian pitches will come in handy for the Royals. Hogg on the other hand is definitely not Shane Warne, but is a shadow of him and can be ominous with the ball. Claiming thirteen wickets in nine matches at a strike rate of 15.7 in the BBL justifies aptly his shift from the commentary box on to the cricket field. Warne’s replacement, Owais Shah is another smart buy. He has been playing T-20s more than often and has done exceptionally well for the Hobart Hurricanes – his team in the BBL. Scoring at an average of 70.50, he was the fourth highest run-scorer in the tournament as he amassed 282 runs.

The two colts- Dinesh Chandimal and Kevon Cooper, reflect Royals’ motto of “nurturing and promoting new talent”. Chandimal an under-19 star player has played 35 ODIs and three Tests till date and looks like he’s going to be an asset to any team he’ll represent. With variations in his stroke play, he is quick at compiling runs; no wonder why some cricket pundits see him as the next Kaluwitharana. Two centuries & seven fifties with an average of 38.67 in ODIs till date, this wicket-keeper batsman promises a lot more. Cooper is a pure T-20 pro who has been accurate with his medium pace deliveries and his performance in the BPL for the Chittagong Kings is proof enough of his unleashed talent which can be improvised upon and implemented well.

The Royals will have a pace quartet this IPL, as the triplet- Shaun Tait, Sidharth Trivedi & Pankaj Singh will be joined by S. Sreesanth. A mercurial bowler from Kerela whose ODI stats in Jaipur are catchy, is a good swinger of the ball. Though he has been out of action because of a toe injury, the Test matches that he played last in England showed an improved and disciplined version of Sreesanth as he scalped sixteen wickets in three Tests and proved that he’s got not just aggression, but an ability that’s at par with his contemporaries.

Rest of the squad remains the same as before. With Watson, a star in every format; Rahane, composed & inventive; aerofoil Menaria & the stabilizer Dravid, go-to men Stuart Binny, John Botha & Collingwood; and the integral- Faiz Fazal, S. Narwal, Ankit Chavan, Amit Paunikar & D. Yagnik; along with the henchmen- Tait, Trivedi, P. Singh, A.Raut, Aditya Dole & Deepak Chahar; the Rajasthan Royals look all set to take the stage and challenge the invincible.

Under Mr.Dependable – Dravid, the old & the new would interlock their hands, and with previous lessons learned from Warne and the new ones combined, the Royals would come out bright from the school of “Dravid” – that is my conviction.

The team- Rahul Dravid (captain), Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Ajinkya Rahane, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, S.Sreesanth, Dinesh Chandimal, Johan Botha, Kevon Cooper, Paul Collingwood, Amit Paunikar, Amit Singh, Ankit Chavan, Ashok Menaria, Deepak Chahar, Abhishek Raut, Aditya Dole, Owais Shah, Dishant Yagnik, Faiz Fazal, Pankaj Singh, Stuart Binny, Sreevats Goswami, Samad Fallah, Siddharth Trivedi.