Retentions: All you need to know about the Rajasthan franchise

Sanju Samson and Rajasthan Royals are synonymous. You can’t really separate them. Even though he had a decent time with the captaincy role last year, Sanju was great with the bat and the leadership role helped him get better with the bat. So, retaining him was a no brainer but Rajasthan night just handed him the captaincy baton as well which may not be the right choice for the franchise.

The franchise has also retained Jos the Boss Buttler. Another no brainer option for the franchise. The strange part is that the team has not retained the likes of Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tweatia and Chetan Sakariya. With Jofra Archer, Rajasthan has stated that they aren’t sure when the Englishman will be back playing as he is sidelined with an injury.

The team will be built fresh but expect them to go after Sakariya and Tewatia. The Rajasthan franchise has also retained Yashasvi Jaiswal. It’s great to see that the team is backing a young Indian opener specially when there are so many openers available for the next season. The first three batsmen are set for the franchise and the team will now look for a couple of perfect all-rounders to fit in. It won’t be surprising if the franchise goes after the Pandya brothers as Mumbai didn’t retain them for the upcoming season.

“I’m really excited to be staying with the Rajasthan Royals. Over the past four seasons, I’ve received tremendous love and support from the franchise and its supporters, and I consider the Royals as my second home. I’m delighted to be continuing with the team and looking forward to contributing towards creating a champion side”, said Jos Buttler after he was retained.

Director of Cricket for the Rajasthan franchise, Kumar Sangakkara said, “We had to take a lot of factors into consideration while making this decision and would have ideally liked to have gone with four players but the uncertainty surrounding Jofra's long term injury forced us to retain only three. The idea behind going with these players was to have a strong core retained who also happen to form the leadership team at the Royals, while also giving us spending power in the auction. It was certainly a tough decision to make, but we are delighted to confirm that Sanju, Jos and Yashasvi will be staying with us as the backbone of our team. We believe that this trio of explosive players are the best to take this team forward, and have the desired qualities that we are looking for in our players as we look forward to the next season. We would also like to thank all of the players for their efforts through the course of the previous seasons, and for always maintaining the Rajasthan Royals values.”