Rajasthan Royals will have to do a lot of brainstorming to return to winning ways in the Indian Premier League 2025. After going down to Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening clash, the 2008 champions were thumped by Kolkata Knight Riders in a one-sided match. The batters failed to turn up and put just 151 runs on the board.
There was no way KKR were going to mess it up and the visiting franchise reached home in 17.3 overs and eight wickets in hand. Varun Chakravarthy and Moeen Ali took two wickets each, and Quinton de Kock scored an unbeaten 97 runs in the winning cause.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was one of the RR retentions, and the owners paid INR 18 crore for his services. The returns have been ordinary so far, with the southpaw finding it hard to accumulate runs.
In the game against the Knight Riders, he didn’t look comfortable in the middle, and despite facing 24 deliveries, he went for a rash shot against Moeen. He scored 29 runs off 24 balls, with the help of 2 fours and as many sixes.
Former India player Piyush Chawla didn’t get overcritical but warned the batter.
“You will have to perform and you are a senior player and were retained. He was looking set but threw his wicket away. He survived a run-out, and there was some panic when he was in the middle. His batting was ordinary. He has played just two games, and it is early to judge, but he should score runs,” Piyush Chawal said on Star Sports.