With the mega auction around the corner, all the regular franchises announced their list of the retained players on Tuesday. While some of the choices on those lists were no-brainers, some of them were strange, to say the list. One such odd, or rather a bold decision, was taken in Rajasthan Royals’ retention list in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Jaiswal – a player worth investing
There might be many fingers pointed at Jaiswal’s selection, but there might be hardly anyone who would say that the name is not worth investing. The 19-year-old already is a double centurion (203 runs off 154 balls, Vijay Hazare Trophy, playing for Mumbai against Jharkhand) in List A cricket, and has been consistent in the domestic circuit.
The only negative point thus far in Jaiswal’s short career has been his maiden IPL year (2020), where he was highly ineffective, scoring only 40 runs in three innings. But this year, he has showcased an excellent improvement by producing five 30+ scores, including a 21-ball half-century, which helped Rajasthan crush this year’s title winners, Chennai Super Kings.
Jaiswal scored 249 runs in this year’s IPL. While his batting average of 24.90 might be a lackluster number, the actual highlight of his game (and the need of the game) was his strike rate throughout the season. His strike rate this year was a staggering 148.21, a 63.02% increase from his previous year’s batting endeavor, which goes on to tell what intent this young boy has towards his game.
Royals missed out on big names
Liam Livingstone
While Livingstone’s IPL performance might not have been up to the mark (113 runs in nine games with an average of 14.12), the team could have at least looked at his effectiveness in various leagues and the 2021 international season, where he smashed 236 runs at an average of 33.71 and an astonishing strike rate of 177.44.
Ben Stokes
The biggest shock from Rajasthan’s retention list was that they kept Ben Stokes out of it. A world-class allrounder and the game’s superstar has done more than enough to warrant big bucks. In 43 games of IPL, he has scored 920 runs at a strike rate of134.5, averaging 25.26 with the bat, which includes two centuries. His bowling ability, too, makes him the perfect candidate for any squad. However, the Royals have undoubtedly missed a trick with keeping Stokes out.
Jofra Archer
The world knows what Jofra Archer brings in for his franchise – the fear of pace. The pacer was more than economical for the Royals for three seasons, with 46 wickets at 7.13 runs per over, and has only improved season by season. Jofra’s fitness concerns were sighted as the reason for his non-inclusion in the retention list.
Way forward
It’s not like Yashaswi Jaiswal is poor retention. No, not at all. It’s good that the franchise is thinking from a future perspective. But what the team needed was a good bowling option around which they could have built a solid unit, which (due to lack of) has hurt them the most in the recent past if we are still ignoring their poor run by the bat. Even an evergreen option like Ben Stokes would have benefitted them, but only the franchise owners know what happened behind those meeting doors.
Nonetheless, Sangakara has made it obvious what he has in mind by retaining Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler. So the team will be built around these two stalwarts, and now the eyes will be on the incoming mega auction.