Rajasthan Royals Director of Cricket, Kumar Sangakkara, mentioned ahead of his team’s IPL opener on Monday that they wish to play a “free and relaxed” brand of cricket in the tournament.
Before the clash with Punjab Kings, Sri Lankan legend Sangakkara spoke about his team’s approach for the IPL 2021 as they look to be more clear and precise when it comes to communication with players regarding their roles and overall team plans. One of the issues that plagued RR last season was the inconsistency of their playing XI.
We look to finalise (combinations) later on today before we go for training and we want we want to keep our options open. The most important thing is that players are communicated clearly as to what their roles are and get them to commit to it.
What we planned to do is get a balanced side, everyone available, a full squad, try and have a consistent philosophy of cricket. The brand of cricket that we want to play is quite free and relaxed. Also in terms of preparing well and executing well… to get everyone prepared to think and to be problem-solvers. To think for themselves.
It helps Sanju a lot on the field when people are thinking for themselves and know what’s going on. It builds a lot of trust within the group as well.
he said.
RR could start by being a little clearer with their regards to the opening position. The team trialled as many as five combinations at the top without desirable results. For Samson, the newly appointed captain, the need of the hour is to show the players more trust and give them a longer run at a particular spot in the line-up, one way they can get the best out of their resources.
“Myself and Sanga will try to give the best combination,” said Samson. “From my point of view, it’s crucial to give an individual or a pair of opening partners enough time in the tournament. So, I think a bit of stability will be seen in this tournament. The rest it depends on how we go.”
While RR do have their flaws, winning only six and losing eight of their 14 matches last year and finishing bottom of the table was a massive underachievement given the talent that is available within their squad. Sangakkara reinforced the same, naming some of their “match-winners”.
“We have a lot of match-winners who are absolutely wonderful players…in Sanju Samson, Rahul Tewatia, our fast bowlers. The key is to have different people who do something a little bit special on the day and the point of a great team performance is to have your regular players performing consistently and once in a while. Someone stepping in to do a little bit extra. If it’s a different player most of the time and not the same person, it’s even better.”
A massive hole to plug for the RR team management will be the absence of their spearhead Jofra Archer, one of their biggest positives in IPL 2020. Archer is currently in the UK, recuperating from an elbow injury and hand surgery and might not be available for the entire season if the rehabilitation takes long.
That will once again put a lot of pressure on RR’s Indian fast-bowling, their longstanding weakness. Sangakkara, however, gave an interesting view on the matter, saying lack of experience could actually benefit some of his team’s Indian faces.
I think inexperience sometimes can work for you and against. Inexperience would probably mean that the opposition has not really seen them either, but fast bowling, especially in the IPL is not an easy task and we saw that yesterday as well. Sometimes the wickets are really good for batting or most of the wickets are, so you have to be quite skillful.
I’m pretty confident that our young fast bowlers will step up. We’ve had Kartik Tyagi who did very well last season in patches in various phases of the game and this year we have a new additions in Kuldip Yadav and Chetan Sakariya.
Sangakkara added.
Rajasthan Royals (RR) haven’t won the coveted IPL title since the league’s inaugural season back in 2008.
