IPL 2020: A complete SWOT Analysis of all eight teams

Rajasthan Royals

Squad-Steve Smith(c), Varun Aaron, Akash Singh, Anuj Rawat, Jofra Archer, Jos Butler, Tom Curran, Shreyas Gopal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aniruddha Joshi, Kartik Tyagi, Mahipal Lomror, Mayank Markande, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Ankit Rajpoot, Sanju Samson, Shashank Singh, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tewatia, Oshane Thomas, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Robin Uthappa, Manan Vohra

Strengths

• Outstanding foreigners in playing 11- In Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer and Steve Smith, Rajasthan easily have the most destructive and reliable overseas core, with all of them actively playing international cricket. Each of them occupies a specific spot in the 11, and has the ability to control the game from there. Butler is someone who can provide rapid starts to Rajasthan like he has over the last couple of seasons. Smith at 3, and also the captain, can rotate the strike better than most cricketers and Stokes at 5 can be the one to provide the finishing touch. Archer is the apt man to be the bowling spearhead. If even 2 of them hit top form, Rajasthan could be a very difficult team to beat.

• Emergence of Shreyas Gopal as a match winner- Shreyas Gopal has been a shining star for Rajasthan in the last couple of seasons with 31 wickets, and picking up as many as 20 in the last season. He has dismissed the best of batsmen including Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers a number of times. His guile and temperament as a bowler have impressed one and all. His last season’s performance even prompted discussions of his inclusion in the Indian Team. In addition to being a skillful bowler, Gopal is also a handy batsman. He has played a number of impactful innings for his state team Karnataka and his confidence from the last season is sure to hold him in good stead. He could be Rajasthan’s ace in the pack and play an important role with both and ball this season.

Weakness

• Lack of Finishers- Rajasthan like a number of teams are top heavy and lack a proper finisher at 6/7. In an ideal scenario where their top overseas players play at their preferred slot, Rajasthan might have to regularly play the likes of Riyan Parag and Shreyas Gopal at 6 and 7. While both of them are talented cricketers, they aren’t yet cut out to be out-and-out finishers. And we have seen with a number of teams, even if the top order is extremely strong, on a bad day, the team invariably falls into trouble in the absence of a strong lower middle-order. Rajasthan might have to play around with a few positions to accommodate a finisher in the lower middle-order, but this is a problem which will be difficult to deal with.

Opportunity

• Rajasthan have always known to back young talents. Sticking true to that, Rajasthan has 3 U19 stars in their team- Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kartik Tyagi and Akash Singh. Add to that Riyan Parag who is also 18, and Mahipal Lomror, 20, Rajasthan have in their armory young fearless cricketers who could spring a surprise or two.

Threat

• The obvious threat for Rajasthan would be over reliance on the overseas players. It is very important for the Indian core to step up as well, because as we have seen over the years, the teams where the Indian core performs consistently, usually wins the IPL.

Potential Surprises– Riyan Parag, Yashasvi Jaiswal