IPL 2022: Chahal buy of the auction in terms of value, says RR CEO

The team has relied on a core of Indian and international experienced players flanked by young talent in almost every season

Rajasthan Royals CEO Jake Lush McCrum has said that Yuzvendra Chahal was the buy of the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction in terms of value.

Rajasthan Royals have consistently been one of the best cricket franchises in Indian cricket. From winning the championship in the league debut in 2008, the team has had an ethos of giving young Indian cricketers a platform to shine and grow as players.

They've relied on a core of Indian and international experienced players flanked by young talent in almost every season. With the conclusion of the auction for the 2022 season, Rajasthan Royals has a new-look team that will excite all their fans.

 

"I think we are trying to change how we are perceived as a team because we've had three poor years now. Yes, they were impacted by availability and injuries, but we've had three poor years as a franchise. We want the fans to look at us and be able to say we are competing for the top-2. We are competing for the championship. And that's the mentality that has to resonate from within the franchise and around the franchise," said McCrum during a chat with Red Bull.

"We think we have done that with building this squad. We've got quality Indian players; we have four players who are consistently in the Indian national team. Our overseas players are also available throughout the season and very talented individuals. There's a good balance to the side. We want to be competing near the top of the table, and we want to win as many games as possible for our fans, and hopefully, we will be lifting the trophy at the end of the season," he added.

Talking about Rajasthan's picks in the auction, McCrum said: "I think we secured a lot of our top priorities. We went in not with fixed individuals - we were quite flexible within the structures of what we wanted to secure. It was mostly about trying to achieve our 'what it takes to win' criteria. But we are delighted to have people like Ravi (Ravichandran) Ashwin, Yuzi (Yuzvendra) Chahal, (Devdutt) Padikkal, Riyan (Parag), Rassie (van der Dussen), Trent Boult; the list could go on and on. All of them were on our target list. And we are delighted to have secured all of them."

"I would probably say Yuzi is the buy of the auction in terms of value, so we are delighted to have his leg-spin wicket-taking capability in our side. Overall, we got almost everyone we wanted to. Yes, there were players on our list who we missed, but we had to prioritize and be flexible to get the players at a good value so we could have the best possible squad. We are very happy with what we have achieved," he added.

Rajasthan Royals squad: Sanju Samson (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell.