Top 5 picks by Rajasthan Royals in IPL history

The Rajasthan Royals were the winners of the inaugural IPL held in 2008. The team that was considered weak initially, went on to win the coveted trophy under the leadership of Shane Warne. Later on, under the captaincy of Shane Watson and coaching of Rahul Dravid, a relatively young team started producing some great results.

Through the years they have had some wonderful players and have had some great seasons which was a result of some smart buys made during the auctions. They reaped fruitful results with both their expensive as well as the economical buys. The Royals usually procure cricketers who are not very eminent at very low prices.

They are well-known for their economical disbursements during the IPL auctions, even during the mega-auctions that take place once in 3 years.

Let us have a look at the five best buys made by the Royals over the years.

5. Jos Buttler

The wicketkeeper-batsman was taken in by RR for a sum of Rs. 4.40 Crores during the 2018 auction. Buttler struggled to get going during the initial stages of IPL-2018 when he was batting in the middle order. His scores when he batted down the order were 10, 6, 22, 24*, 23, 29 and 6.

Once he started opening the innings, Buttler's performances improved remarkably. His blistering performances helped the Rajasthan Royals qualify for the playoffs. He scored 548 runs in 2018 IPL with five 50+ scores at a strike rate of 150. His consistent knocks at the top made sure that the Rajasthan Royals rose from the bottom position in the table to the 4th position.

RR won 4 matches out of 5 when Jos Buttler opened the batting. He did not play the eliminator due to national duty and RR eventually lost the game. He turned out to be the best buy of the season for the management.