Poor captaincy, ineffective bowlers: Tale of Rajasthan Royals' forgettable IPL 2020
Imagine a team with the likes of Steve Smith, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, David Miller, Tom Curran, Robin Uthappa and Sanju Samson ending up last on the IPL points table. Yes, that's what happened with the Rajasthan Royals.
The franchise, which started with back-to-back batting blitzkriegs against CSK and Kings XI Punjab in the opening week, surprisingly went silent, winning only four out of their remaining 12 matches. On quite a few occasions, skipper Steve Smith's lack of intent cost the team straightforward victories.
Their batting, touted as their main strength, couldn't adapt from Sharjah's flat surfaces and small boundaries to the challenging pitches of Abu Dhabi and Dubai and couldn't put up or chase down targets above 160 runs consistently due to top-order collapses.
On the bowling front also, Englishman Jofra Archer became a lone warrior when it came to pegging back the opposition match after match. The spinners also proved ineffective.
Despite the team having a few highs such as Ben Stokes' match-winning ton against Mumbai Indians or pulling off IPL's most successful run chase (226/6 against Punjab, with all-rounder Rahul Tewatia hitting five sixes in an over), the Royals' IPL 2020 campaign was all about a talented outfit not delivering in crunch situations, resulting in their worst season ever.
Let's decode what went wrong with Smith and co.
Jofra, a lone Archer
There was the bowling. Jayadev Unadkat, who spearheaded the now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiants' charge into the IPL 2017 final, has not been the same bowler since. He has become rather predictable now.
His exploits in domestic cricket not only earned him a place in India's limited-overs and Test squads for a brief time, it also resulted in Royals coughing up Rs 11.50 crore and Rs 8.40 crore respectively in the 2018 and 2019 auctions. This year, he was bought for Rs 3 crore. These price tags did more harm than good for Unadkat.
He has often ended up conceding over 40 to 50 runs in his four-over spells in recent years. 2020 was no different, as he could manage only four wickets in seven matches with an economy close to ten runs per over.
His worst spell came in the Royals' return fixture against RCB at Dubai, where the latter, chasing a challenging target of 178 runs, plundered the Saurashtra pacer for 26 runs in one over. They won the match by seven wickets with two balls to spare despite needing more than 50 runs for victory in the last four overs.
Ankit Rajpoot, the right-arm fast-medium bowler from Kanpur, started his career with a bang after a brilliant 2012/13 domestic season with Uttar Pradesh. He appeared for CSK and grabbed the headlines in his 2013 IPL debut against Mumbai Indians after dismissing Ricky Ponting with a short-pitched delivery.
Before joining the Royals, he had brief stints with KKR and Punjab. In the 2018 IPL, he bowled the best spell by an Indian fast bowler (5/14) against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Since then, his bowling stats haven't been that great, with the economy rate hovering around 9.24. In the 2020 IPL, he took only two wickets in six games, while giving away eleven runs per over.
With Unadkat and Rajpoot being ineffective, Jofra Archer's magnificent run (20 wickets in 14 games at less than seven runs per over) couldn't make much of an impact.
Steve lacking in form and inspiration Smith
Smith, who entered the tournament after missing the three-match ODI series in England due to a concussion, had a forgettable season.
He started his campaign with two back-to-back fifties in Royals' run feasts in Sharjah (including the record 224-run chase against Punjab).
But his stats after 14 matches read 311 runs at an average of 25.91. It paled in comparison to the other skippers namely KL Rahul (670 runs), David Warner (444 runs), Virat Kohli (431 runs), Eoin Morgan (418 runs) and Shreyas Iyer (433 runs).
Juggling his batting positions and trying to play unconventional shots while doing that cost him his wicket cheaply frequently.
As a captain too, Smith failed.
Here are a few of his poor on-field calls:
Not giving Jofra Archer the 19th over against RCB at Dubai, when the latter needed 51 runs in less than five overs, with AB De Villiers at the crease. Unadkat, who bowled the over, gave away 26 runs as mentioned earlier and gifted the match away.
In the first group game against KKR, Rajasthan had their nose ahead as the Knight Riders were struggling at 5-115 in 14.2 overs. Smith, though, could not get his team to throw the killer punch and ended up as the losing skipper with Royals' succumbing in their chase of 175.
Against Delhi at Sharjah, the Royals again restricted Shreyas Iyer and co to 79-4 and then conjured up a way to lose the game by 46 runs.
In the must-win encounter against KKR at Dubai, the script was repeated. Morgan and co were struggling at 99-5 but then the Royals bowling let them post 191/7. The Royals would go on to be knocked out from the play-off after a 60-run loss.
Uthappa's many failures
Robin Uthappa, as prolific as Suresh Raina in IPL's history (with over 4500 runs in 13 editions altogether), was one of Royals' top buys this time around.
The franchise expected him to be their anchor, a role the Karnataka veteran had played for KKR from 2014-2018. (Who can forget his purple patch in the 2014 season where he scored 660 runs in 16 matches and helped the team to win its second IPL trophy?). But he could manage only 196 runs in 12 outings, without even a single 50.
Even though Uthappa turned opener towards the tournament's business end and became positive in his approach during the powerplay, none of those promising starts were converted into big scores. His strike rate (119.51) also was dismal.
The few 'Stoke'ing the competitive fire
A franchise boasting batting heavyweights like Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Jos Buttler, David Miller, Ben Stokes and Robin Uthappa would not have expected to see the wheels coming off their campaign in this manner.
Despite putting up 200-plus total at their first match against Chennai and completing IPL's highest run-chase (226-6 against Punjab), the Royals went on to disappoint.
Yashasvi Jaiswal couldn't replicate his U-19 success.
Smith struggled in the middle-order, leaving Samson (375 runs in 14 matches) to anchor the innings more than once.
David Miller only warmed the benches. Neither Mahipal Lomror (59 runs in three outings) and Riyan Parag (86 runs in 12 games) stood out.
Only bowling allrounder Rahul Tewatia (255 runs in 14 games) showed some spark along with Buttler (328 runs in 14 matches).
The decision of playing Stokes as an opener too paid some dividends as he notched up 285 runs, including a match-winning 107* against Mumbai, in eight matches. But that then was that.