Having been part of Rajasthan Royals' campaign in all six previous editions, including the triumphant one in the inaugural year 2008, star Australia all-rounder Shane Watson feels the Jaipur franchise has its strongest-ever team in the Indian Premier League this season.
"I've got no prediction, apart from (that) we're certainly going to be extremely competitive. We've got, in my thoughts, the strongest squad we've ever had for the Rajasthan Royals.
"We've got really hard quality options and back-up for every position in our team which we haven't exactly had every year in the past," said Watson in an email interview to PTI about his team's chances in the T20 event starting tomorrow in the UAE.
However, the 32-year-old Queensland-born stalwart, who will captain the Royals this season, pointed out that with one team less following the exit of Pune Warriors this season, it's going to be an open and exciting tournament.
"But that doesn't certainly guarantee success or any more success than we've had previously because the opposition have got the same thing as well with one less team this year (which) means that there're more hard quality players that are around to better be in every list as well.
"So I think it's going to be the most toughly fought and evenly fought IPL that's been so far because the quality of players that are in every single squad is pretty amazing," he said.
Watson - who has played 52 Tests, 173 ODIs and 45 T20 Internationals for Australia - said the Royals had some very good players in their ranks with last year's core group having been retained, besides augmenting the side.
"So there's no doubt we will be doing everything we can, like we have in the past, but we certainly got some pretty incredible players as well. We've been able to keep our core group that we had last year which was very important as part of our strategy for this year and then we've also been able to complement what we've had last year as well.
"But that certainly doesn't guarantee the success we had last year because the opposition is going to be even stronger than last year, but we're certainly giving ourselves a good chance for things to go right anyway," Watson said.
