Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra shared that the Rajasthan Royals (RR) will not be able to buy too many big-ticket players at the IPL 2023 auction as well. However, the Royals have retained 16 players heading into the auction which will take place in Kochi on December 23.
Meanwhile, they have a remaining purse of ₹13.2 crore, with which they can buy a maximum of nine players where four foreigners can be added as well. In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra also said that the Rajasthan Royals franchise might follow a strategy similar to the one they had last year’s auction, claiming:
“Rajasthan Royals still have nine slots to be filled, in which they have to find four overseas players and they have only 13.2 crores. Rajasthan Royals will not be able to shop too much. They will again buy cheap cricketers in a jiffy.”
“Lots of players have actually been released but they are not the big purse ones. No one touches Buttler, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer or Sanju Samson, and Yuzi Chahal and Ashwin are still a part of this team. So honestly speaking, the team is ready. Your XI is ready, it is the last year’s one,” he continued.
“I don’t think you can get very big names” – Aakash Chopra On Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals franchise released nine players before the auction – Anunay Singh, Corbin Bosch, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Karun Nair, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Shubham Garhwal and Tejas Baroka. Notably, none of them were regular players in their playing XI in IPL 2022.
Aakash Chopra said, “What can you do differently? They don’t have too much money, so I am not going to take the big names, that you get Ben Stokes, although they like English players. I don’t think you can get very big names. Their problem was that the six proper batters and five proper bowlers’ story does not work, eventually you get found out in the IPL. It will be very good if they can get an overseas all-rounder.”
However, Aakash Chopra also feels that the inaugural IPL champions should try to buy an overseas all-rounder as well. Meanwhile, he also named a few all-rounders they might look forward too.
“The cheap options could be Sikandar Raza, Romario Shepherd, Michael Bracewell, Dasun Shanaka, Chamika Karunaratne or Mohammad Nabi. None of Ben Stokes, Sam Curran or Cameron Green are going to come to them. Maybe Sikandar Raza because you will not be able to afford Holder as well,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
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