5 released players Rajasthan Royals should target in IPL 2019 Auction

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Rajasthan Royals had a decent run in IPL 2018 under the tutelage of Ajinkya Rahane. Royals finished fourth in the league after having lost to KKR in the Eliminator. Thus, after a reasonably successful season up their sleeve, Rajasthan decided to retain their core group while releasing as many as ten players - six overseas and four Indian players.

Here is the complete list of retained and released players by RR ahead of the 2019 IPL Auction.

Retained players: Ajinkya Rahane, Krishnappa Gowtham, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Gopal, Aryaman Birla, Sudhesan Midhun, Prashant Chopra, Stuart Binny, Rahul Tripathi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mahipal Lomror, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Steve Smith, Jofra Archer, and Ish Sodhi.

Released players: D'Arcy Short, Heinrich Klaasen, Ben Laughlin, Dane Paterson, Zahir Khan, Dushmantha Chameera, Jaydev Unadkat, Anureet Singh, Ankit Sharma, and Jatin Saxena.

Having released as many as ten players, Royals will surely go into the auction with an aim to fill the voids that hurt them in IPL 2018. So, what exactly are the grey areas that Royals will need to address during the IPL Auction? 

To name a few, Royals will need to take a look at their incompetent pace department (especially the Indian fast-bowling lineup), in-effective lower-batting order, the opening department (whom to open along with Jos Buttler), and backup options for their English and Australian players. 

Thus, after having a close gander at their inadequacies, let us now look at five released players that Rajasthan Royals should target in the 2019 IPL Auction. 

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#1 Alex Hales

The fiery opener from England, Alex Hales, was released by SRH ahead of the 2019 IPL Auction. Hales, who was the replacement of David Warner in IPL 2018, played only six games for Sunrisers in IPL 2018. From six games, Hales scored 148 runs at a modest average of 24.66 and a strike-rate of 125.42. Howbeit, his IPL numbers doesn't depict the whole story. 

Hales has been one of the best batsmen for England in the shortest format of the game. His T20 exploits are just impeccable. With an ability to slog the white cherry out of the ground regularly, Hales has become a hot property in the T20 leagues the world over. Hence, will surely be a prospect to watch out for Royals in the 2019 IPL Auction.

In Hales, Royals could find their second opener - one that has been missing since last year. Alex along with his teammate Jos will unquestionably form a formidable opening pair. Besides that, despite being an Englishman, Hales will be one of the very few players who might stick with the Royals till the end of the tournament as he hasn't been a regular member in the English ODI side. Hence, if not selected in the World Cup squad, Hales might be available for the latter part of the league as well.

Thus, Hales happens to be one of the players that Royals might try to persuade for IPL 2019. 

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