Rajasthan Royals director of cricket and head coach Kumar Sangakkara is happy with the team’s squad, which they selected during the two-day IPL mega auction.
The inaugural champions were able to rope in veteran spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Furthermore, Rajasthan Royals were able to get the services of Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Thus, they have a potent bowling line-up and they would aim to tick the right boxes.
“We know we had quite a bit of work to do in the off-season with regards to our team. I think we managed to identify the key areas which needed our attention and having had a proper process when it comes to selecting players at the auction, we managed to kind of hit the markers that we set for ourselves,” said Sangakkara in a team statement.
“We’ve got the two best spinners in the IPL in terms of off-spin and leg-spin in Chahal and Ashwin. We have Boult, Prasidh, Saini, Coulter-Nile, McCoy, which make up for a very exciting pace unit supported by of course the retentions of Yashasvi, Samson and Buttler,” he added.
Furthermore, Rajasthan Royals are boosted by the addition of players like Jimmy Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, and Rassie van der Dussen. Moreover, RR has got young exciting Indian players in their squad, who will be looking to grab their opportunities with both hands in the 15th season of the IPL.
“We have secured depth in every department, with Neesham, Mitchell and van der Dussen being exciting cricketers. We’ve got some really exciting and young cricketers from India as well. The main thing is that we have a very competent side. We tried to get the core right and get the right players for the roles.”
On the other hand, Kumar Sangakkara also spoke on unfortunate Shane Warne’s demise. Warne suffered a heart attack, which took the cricketing world by storm. The former legendary leg-spinner had also led Rajasthan Royals to their maiden IPL title in 2008.
“He’s a great loss for the cricket world, a great loss for cricketers around the world, because he was such an approachable guy, who had great knowledge. He was a very good friend, and I really enjoyed my time with him, the conversations we used to have. I think everyone will miss him.”
Rajasthan Royals will take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening clash of the season on March 29 at the MCA Stadium in Pune.
