Rajasthan Royals have included Ravindra Jadeja in their team in a trade-in from Chennai Super Kings and after this move, Jadeja’s name has come up in the race for the captaincy of Rajasthan Royals.
Veteran CSK all-rounder, Ravindra Jadeja, who is known to make an impact with both bat and ball, has moved to his former franchise, Rajasthan Royals. He started his IPL career with the franchise in 2008 and was a part of the Shane Warne-led team that won its first IPL title.
Sanju Samson (traded to Chennai Super Kings), Nitish Rana (traded to Delhi Capitals), Wanindu Hasaranga, Mahesh Theekshana, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Kunal Singh Rathore, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Karthikeya and Ashok Sharma were the players who were released by the Royals in different ways.
Ravindra Jadeja is leading in the race for captaincy of Rajasthan Royals.
As it turns out, ever since the talk of Ravindra Jadeja’s possible swap started, there has been speculation that he could be made the new captain of Rajasthan Royals for the next season.
Former captain Sanju Samson was traded to the CSK team; Therefore, the captain’s position in the team was vacant. Rajasthan Royals have players like Ryan Parag, Dhruv Jurel and Yashasvi Jaiswal who can become the new captain of the Royals.
According to a report in Times of India, Jadeja is now being considered as one of the top choices for captaincy for the upcoming season of IPL. This has surprised everyone to an extent as the other three options mentioned earlier seemed young enough to be considered as long-term options, but that does not seem to be the case with 37-year-old Jadeja.
Jadeja will be officially made the captain after the mini auction
Back in the IPL, Ravindra Jadeja was handed the responsibility of leading Chennai Super Kings in 2022, when the talk about MS Dhoni’s leadership was in full swing. However, after a few defeats, the all-rounder gave in to the pressure and stepped down from the captaincy.
“Jadeja will be handed over the reins. The announcement will be made in two months,” TOI quoted a source as saying. Now, perhaps captaincy is what might have attracted Ravindra Jadeja to join Rajasthan Royals, as he also agreed to take a huge pay cut of Rs 4 crore to join the Royals.
Chennai Super Kings had retained Ravindra Jadeja for Rs 18 crore, but in exchange for him with Sanju Samson, who was also priced at Rs 18 crore, the Super Kings had to trade Sam Curran with them, as the Royals had offered Jadeja Rs 14 crore.
Royals will improve the team with adequate funds
Although Rajasthan Royals’ batting line-up looks more comprehensive than before despite the departure of their former captain, they will still have to target a few or at least a few big names in the mini-auction.
One could be a proper middle-order batsman like Josh Inglis or a strong finisher like Andre Russell. The Royals lost most of their tough matches last season because they lacked some firepower at the final end and were completely dependent on Shimron Hetmyer.
With a purse of Rs 16.05 crore and only 2 mandatory slots left to reach the required number of 18 players, the Royals would be looking to include at least one of those big names.
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