Former cricketer Aakash Chopra highlighted the concerns for Rajasthan Royals after their loss against the Mumbai Indians on Sunday, April 30 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai in the 2023 Indian Premier League. He was critical of the skipper Sanju Samson, who wasn’t able to make much of an impact with the bat in the match.
Batting first Rajasthan Royals put on 212 runs on the board, on the back of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s century. Apart from the opener, the rest of the batting attack failed to get a substantial score. Sanju Samson managed just 14 runs off 10 deliveries. Eventually, Mumbai Indians won the match by six wickets. Analyzing the game, Aakash Chopra pointed out what went wrong for the visitors.
In a video on his Youtube Channel, Aakash Chopra said,
“Rajasthan is facing another trouble. Jos Buttler is not firing, as he usually does, this year. The start was very good but he has gone slightly down. Sanju Samson hasn’t scored runs at all. So as good a team as they are, because they have (Shimron) Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, and Devdutt Padikkal as well, the team is good, but two main players not scoring runs, that’s a problem.”
You don’t do that in Mumbai: Aakash Chopra on Rajasthan Royals opting to bat first
Former cricketer Aakash Chopra further expressed his surprise over Rajasthan Royals’ decision to bat first after winning the toss. He pointed out that dew plays an important role in evening matches at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Aakash Chopra said,
“It was amazing that Rajasthan chose to bat after winning the toss. You don’t do that in Mumbai. You want to chase in Mumbai because the dew comes later and it is a chase-friendly ground. In yesterday evening’s match, there was so much dew that, when I asked Parthiv Patel who was there, he said that it was like a river was flowing.”
Rajasthan Royals slipped to third place in the points table after the loss against the Mumbai Indians. They have won five matches out of nine, and have an NRR of 0.800. The Sanju Samson-led team will take on the Gujarat Titans on May 5 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
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