The royal slump

The Rajasthan Royals may have been the champions of the inaugural edition of the IPL in 2008 and they came really close to making the semi-finals in South Africa last year but do they have enough firepower in their batting to make the last four this season? Their early performances do not indicate that.

In the two matches played so far, the Royals have managed a net run rate of -0.8 after suffering defeats to Mumbai and Delhi. They depend heavily on a couple of players to get their runs. In the game against Mumbai, Yusuf Pathan was at his destructive best (100 off 37 balls) and nearly got them victory but Warnie’s boys had nothing to show in that match besides that blitzkrieg innings. In the following game, the Royals managed a paltry 141 after Pathan failed to make any contribution and were beaten convincingly by Delhi Daredevils. With the form Pathan is in, he could well be their star this season but there is a clear lack of further support with the bat and with Graeme Smith ruled out for the rest of the tournament, the issue becomes even more critical.

The Royals have the lowest Batting Momentum in the tournament after the Kolkata Knight Riders, who were involved in a low scoring triumph over Bangalore and were bowled out cheaply against Chennai.

It was a similar scenario in South Africa last year and the Rajasthan team failed to address the issue. None of their batsmen made the list of the top-10 run-getters in IPL 2009.Their best performer was Ravindra Jadeja (15th amongst all) and he’s not even around this year! Pathan was destructive on occasions but very inconsistent, managing just 243 runs in 13 innings (an average of 20.25)

What do you make of Shane Warne’s troop? Do you think that they can get out of the early slump this season?