IPL 2019: 3 players who could be surplus at Rajasthan Royals
Rajasthan Royals had a decent time in the 2019 IPL Auction as they managed to pull off some remarkable signings, while their main aim was to strengthen the seam department, which they did quite successfully during auctions.
Having retained most of their players, Rajasthan went into the auction in a bid to fill their voids for IPL 2019. Royals were quite clear in their bids and smartly opted in for the players who can solve the chinks in the bowling department.
Overall Rajasthan signings look quite surprising as well as fascinating. Their most expensive buy was the Jaydev Udankat. Royals bagged him for ₹ 8.4 Crore which was ₹ 3.1 Crore lesser than what they paid in 2018. Even after that Pace continued to be on their agenda, as they got Oshane Thomas and Varun Aaron for a total of ₹3.5 crores.
Rajasthan Royals 2019 Squad
Players Retained - Ajinkya Rahane, Krishnappa Gowtham, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Gopal, Aryaman Birla, S. Midhun, Prashant Chopra, Stuart Binny, Rahul Tripathi, Ben Stokes, Steve Smith, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer, Ish Sodhi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mahipal Lomror.
Players Purchased - Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Aaron, Oshane Thomas, Ashton Turner, Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Riyan Parag, Manan Vohra, Shubham Ranjane.
In total, Royals boast a quality squad for 2019 season, But there are few names which might be seen warming the bench throughout the season and could be considered as surplus to the team's requirements.
So, without much ado let's have a look at some of those players, who could be surplus during the season.
#3 Aryaman Birla
Aryaman Birla, son of business tycoon Kumar Mangalam Birla is amongst the list of 16 players who were retained by Rajasthan Royals for the next season of the Indian Premier League.
Aryaman previously represented Madhya Pradesh in U-23 cricket, In his five U23 matches, he scored 602 runs with two hundreds and a brilliant double century against Chhattisgarh. This certainly paved way for his entry in Rajasthan Royals in 2018 Auction. Though he was not considered for a single match throughout this season.
The opening batsman has been in decent form this year and was under the spotlight when he struck a majestic ton to help Madhya Pradesh snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat in a Ranji Trophy encounter against Bengal at the Eden Gardens.
Despite being in a good run of form, the young lad faces tough competition from some well-established names like Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Tripathi, etc. He might find it difficult to crack into the playing XI, but can be given a chance in case to fill up to playing XI slots vacated by World Cup calls ups.