Rajasthan Royals (RR) have all of a sudden lost steam as it seemed like an overspeeding car has been involved in a car crash. The Royals have lost three matches on the bounce and even though, they are still very much favourites for the title and qualifying among the top two but it seems their problems have only started to rise. If those three defeats weren’t enough, they will now be without their one of the key components of the well-oiled unit, Jos Buttler, who has won a couple of games for the side single-handedly.
Buttler’s absence will create a giant-sized hole in the RR line-up, especially at the top of the order. RR have an option of playing a like-for-like overseas batter in Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who plays in the top order for his County and other teams in the leagues around the world. Or, RR could push someone like Dhruv Jurel to the top of the order and have their West Indian duo of Shimron Hetmyer and Rovman Powell take care of the middle order alongside Shubham Dubey.
In doing that, RR will have flexibility in their order as they could play an extra overseas seamer or a spinner with one overseas slot still vacant if Hetmyer, Powell and Trent Boult play. Jurel has come back into the hitting form and on a good surface in Guwahati, he will enjoy playing with field restrictions on.
The rest of the line-up is likely to remain the same with skipper Sanju Samson at 3 and local Assamese boy Riyan Parag at No 4. Avesh Khan and Sandeep Sharma will continue to take care of the Indian pace-bowling with Chahal and R Ashwin handling spin duties.
Rajasthan Royals’ predicted XI for match against PBKS: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer/Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Rovman Powell, Shubham Dubey/Nandre Burger, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma, Avesh Khan