Rajasthan Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara shared his views about their playoff qualification expectations. RR won against the LSG in their final league match to finish fourth. They then defeated the SRH in the Eliminator to reach Qualifier 2, where they lost to the Shubman Gill-led Gujarat Titans on Friday.
“No, RR is not, probably before,” Sangakkara said. “In 2022, we made a conscious decision that we were going to change that. We decided we were going to get as many players as possible who could win matches for us and were ready to play immediately. That is how we have approached everything. Vaibhav is an outlier, but we bought him because we thought he was absolutely good enough to play in our first eleven.”
While speaking on the team’s ‘development angle’, Kumar Sangakkara shared that the franchise’s philosophy changed four years ago, and he also admitted the RR did not have the most optimised auction two years back as well.
“Regarding the development angle, we have changed our mindset completely away from that over the last four years,” he added. “We probably didn’t have the best auction two years ago in terms of the utilisation of our purse, but that is the way it goes sometimes. But I think for everyone who played now-yes, there is a bit of inexperience at times, but they are here to win.”
“I thought Riyan’s first season as captain was excellent. He managed his team and his on-field decisions really well,” Sangakkara concluded. “He will grow and learn, as will the other players, and we will come back better. I think no one really gave us a chance to qualify when we started the campaign, but it just goes to show that when you work hard, play good cricket, and enjoy the game, you can make some truly special things happen.”
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