Rajasthan’s Performance in TATA IPL 2025
2
Matches
0
Won
2
Lost
0
Win %
Expected Playing XI and Impact Sub
Yashaswi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson ©, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Sandeep Sharma, Akash Madhwal, Maheesh Theekshana and Shubham Dubey
Top Fantasy Picks from the Team
Sanju Samson – While Samson is set to miss out the first few matches, his batting form will be very crucial to the chances of the team. He has racked up multiple tons opening the batting for India in the last year and the departure of Jos Buttler means he’ll be seen opening the batting in pink as well.
Yashaswi Jaiswal – Already a star of the league with a huge hunger for runs, Jaiswal will hope for a bumper season like 2023 when he amassed more than 600 runs to try and find a place for himself in India’s white ball squads.
Riyan Parag – The middle order batter had a breakthrough season last year which also saw him make his Team India debut subsequently. He would need to also get the team off to a great start as a skipper apart from producing buckets of runs from the middle order.
Wanindu Hasaranga – The Sri Lankan leggie was extremely effective for Bangalore in 2022 and would be happy to be bowling on a big sized ground like the Sawai Man Singh Stadium. Since then he has also upgraded his batting skills and can contribute with the bat lower down the order.
Jofra Archer – After swapping his pink for blue in the league, Archer hasn’t had much success. But his consistent performances in the last year for the English side would give Rajasthan a lot of confidence that he would be able to recreate his 2020 form this year.
Rajasthan’s Schedule for TATA IPL 2025
SWOT Analysis of Rajasthan
After Mumbai, probably Rajasthan is the only side that can claim to have a solid batting order without a single foreign player in the top 5. The franchise has spent years backing and grooming young talents like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag and now are reaping the benefits.
Strengths – The stability of the batting order is quite impressive and to have a top order made up of Indian batters who like to play big innings followed by the big hitting Shimron Hetmyer makes it a formidable lineup.
Weaknesses – The team moved on from Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal and got the Lankan spin duo of Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana at the auctions. While both those names are proven T20 champions who work amazingly well as a pair, it would be interesting to see how Rajasthan manage to have both of them in the XI together. If they’re unable to do that, then the team would have to rely on Indian spinners in the group and that’s where the resources look particularly thin.
The team has also been hit by the news of Sanju Samson’s unavailability for the first three matches and that means Riyan Parag will lead the side. The team would hope that Parag can marshall his troops well as the first three matches are very important from a momentum perspective.
Rajasthan Team in TATA IPL 2025
While they may not have been trophyless unlike Punjab, Delhi and Bangalore, Rajasthan’s wait for a trophy is only a year less than those teams. The team’s fairytale campaign in 2008 where they won the trophy under Shane Warne remains one of the most romantic stories of the league. The team has come close to repeating their performance once when they reached the final in 2022. But beyond that, the team has been a mixed bag at best. In TATA IPL 2025, they begin another campaign with a strong outfit, very much capable of lifting the trophy under Sanju Samson. But will they? The team retained most of the young Indian stars while letting go of Jos Buttler ahead of the auctions. At auction, they got back Jofra Archer who was the MVP of the tournament in 2020 and the Lankan spin duo of Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana. They also bought Nitish Rana to strengthen their all Indian top order. The team will also have a new face in their coaching staff as after finishing his stint with Team India after winning the T20 World Cup, Rahul Dravid joined Rajasthan as the Head Coach.
The team will play its first couple of games in Guwahati’s Barsapara Stadium, which it has used as its second home in the past few years. After that, it will go back to playing at Sawai Man Singh stadium for the remaining five home games.
Brief History of Rajasthan
The team was one of the eight teams that the league began with in 2008. The team assembled at the auction didn’t give anyone any confidence about their chances, but led by the charismatic Shane Warne, they ended up as the inaugural winners of the league. In the following years, after Warne moved on, the team handed over the captaincy to Rahul Dravid and made it to the playoffs in 2013 but couldn’t go farther. The team changed captains frequently in the subsequent years as Shane Watson, Ajinkya Rahane and even Steve Smith led the team in the post Dravid era, but with no results to show.
In 2016 and 2017, the team was suspended from the league. The team went for a rejig in 2021 and gave the captaincy to Sanju Samson. While Samson led them to a Final in 2022, the cup still eluded him and his men. However, the management has shown faith in him and he returns again as captain in 2025 with a good team that can surely go all the way. The team has had multiple home grounds and for a long period played their home matches at Motera in Ahmedabad but have now been consistently playing their home matches at Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many times has Rajasthan won the Indian T20 League?
Rajasthan has won the Indian T20 League only once in 2008.
