Rajasthan Royals head coach Rahul Dravid revealed that skipper Sanju Samson had difficulties in choosing the final retainees ahead of the IPL 2025 auction. This comes after the franchise announced their retentions for IPL 2025 on Thursday (October 31).
Apart from Samson, the Royals chose to retain Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer and Sandeep Sharma.
In the last three editions, Samson amassed 1,351 runs, while producing his best-ever single season tally of 531 runs in 2024. He led the team to the playoffs on two out of three occasions, while emerging as runner-up in 2022. One of the surprise retentions was Jurel, who smashed 195 runs last season, but impressed with his fighting half-century in the losing cause against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Qualifier 2.
Meanwhile, Parag was the leading batter for RR in the last season, slamming 573 runs at a strike rate of 149.21, with four fifties. Jaiswal has left a strong impact on the side in the last three editions, scoring 1,318 runs at a strike rate of 150.83.
After replacing Prasidh Krishna in IPL 2023, Sandeep Sharma picked up a total of 23 wickets in two seasons. He displayed nerves of steel in the death overs to help the team prevail in crunch moments. Meanwhile, Hetmyer held an explosive strike rate of 156.48 during the three-year cycle from 2022-24.
However, Rajasthan Royals let go of experienced players like Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and Jos Buttler. On being asked about the retentions and releases, Dravid thinks Samson and him had many discussions and debates, and they are happy with the final list.
“Sanju had a big role to play in these retentions. He faced a lot of difficulty, too. As a captain, he has build a lot of relationships with these players. We are very sad for the players we couldn’t retain, and Sanju has worked with these players for 5-6 years now,” Dravid was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
“He has had balanced views on these retentions. He has taken the trouble to understand the dynamics of it, charting out the pros and cons. He has discussed a lot with us on this, and it wasn’t an easy decision. We had a lot of debates, but in the end, we are happy with the team that we have and we wanted to retain as many as possible,” he added.
How did Chahal, Ashwin and Buttler perform for RR in last three IPL seasons?
The trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and Jos Buttler played a key role in Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) success over the last three seasons. Chahal returned with 66 scalps and was the team’s wrecker-in-chief, while also registering a hat-trick in the 2022 season.
Ashwin bagged 35 wickets in the last three seasons at an economy of under 8, and was crucial in keeping the opposition batters in check. He was also used as a floater to bail out the team out of pressure situations with the bat.
Meanwhile, Buttler was the RR’s finest batter with 1,614 runs from 2022-24 and provided strong starts to the team along with Yashasvi Jaiswal. In 2022, Buttler slammed 863 runs with four centuries and as many fifties.
