Rajasthan Royals Team SWOT Analysis: Ahead of IPL 2020 Find Out Positives And Negatives of Steve Smith’s RR

After having quite a disappointing season in IPL 2019, team Rajasthan Royals is all set for yet another season. The team ended their campaign by featuring on number seven of the IPL 2019 points table. Ajinkya Rahane was leading the pack for half of the tournament and Steve Smith was handed over the captaincy by the RR management. Coming to this year, team RR has had a fresher start with a new mindset as they invested in the newer player at the IPL auctions. The team invested heavily on the likes of Robin Uthappa, Tom Curran, David Miller, and Andrew Tye. Yashavi Jaiswal was yet another big but for the Jaipur based franchise. Now ahead of the IPL 2020, let's have a look at the SWOT of the team. IPL 2020 Team Update: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rajasthan Royals Batsman, Fires Warning to Opponents, Hits Huge Sixes in the Nets (Watch Video).

Strengths: 

Steve Smith is undoubtedly one of the best captains currently. The Australian has a win percentage of 67.85 in the tournament. He had led Rising Pune Super Giants in 2017 and the team went into the finals. The team has several options when it comes to wicket-keeping. Names like Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, and now Robin Uthappa could be chosen from a variety of players behind the stumps.  Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, and Jos Buttler were the three main players that led England to win the 2019 World Cup and they will once again play under the same roof in RR. Shreyas Gopal is yet another trump card for the team when it comes to the spin department.  He had scalped 20 wickets in 14 matches last season at an economy rate of 7.22 and a commendable strike rate of 14.40.

Weakness: 

The fast bowling department looks fragile. Jaydev Unadkat who had a bad season in IPL 2019 is back into the team. The Saurashtra pacer had scalped 10 wickets from 11 matches with an average of 39.80 and an economy of 10.66. However, with his 10 wicket haul in the Ranji Trophy 2020 vs Gujarat, it is said that Unadkat has found his rhythm. But one cannot simply vouch on his form for now. Ankit Rajpoot, Oshane Thomas, Varun Aaron were yet another decent options.

Opportunities: 

With experienced players like David Miller, Robin Uthappa, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, the team looks good. Riyan Parag who had amassed 160 runs in seven matches has shown quite a lot of intent. He had also scalped a couple of wickets in the season. Also, the pitch in UAE is likely to support the spinners, the likes of Shreyas Gopal are expected to have a gala time.

Threats:  

There are no decent back-ups for spinners and all-rounders. If at all Ben Stokes gets injured, there isn't a big name who can handle the all-rounders' department part from Tom Curran who is a bowling all-rounder. Shreyas Gopal has been decent with the ball but had failed with the bat. Even Rahul Tewatia hasn't been extraordinary.

Despite this, the team looks quite decent. The team manages to fire as a unit, nobody can stop them from winning the tournament. The IPL 2020 will begin from September 19, 2020.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 28, 2020 05:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).