IPL 2020
There is a case for Smith to remove the Royals order. © BCCI
Indeed, the Rajasthan Royals had lost the contest against Royal Challengers Bangalore within the first six overs at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Because for the second game in a row, the first-order trio of Steve Smith, Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson found fault, leaving the team’s relatively inexperienced middle order to do much of the heavy lifting.
Steve Smith and Samson, who reached 50 twins each at the Sharjah games, have found it harder to force the pace in Dubai and Abu Dhabi respectively, while Buttler has yet to make a notable contribution despite threatening to do so before falling. against game. Captain Smith has stressed the need for this Troika, of which he is a part, to lift up its socks.
“Our top 3 should be doing a lot more work. The last two games have cost us,” he said after the loss to RCB. “We hit pretty deep, but our top 3 needs to hit longer and get into innings. [Mahipal] Lomror played well under pressure and to get 155, we didn’t seem to get that many; played a mature inning. Just a few areas that we have to work on and we will go back and see them. ”
Smith’s views were echoed by team chief Andrew McDonald, who agreed that his team had been derailed by the inability of his higher order to hit beyond PowerPlay. “We clearly felt that RCB taking wickets on PowerPlay probably derailed us in the middle, where we had to rebuild for a little bit more than we would like. Not a major concern, we have some world-class players at the top, but most of the time they’re going to be successful. But yeah, clearly that’s one area of this game, “he said.
One of the possible suggestions raised to the Royals involves splitting the Buttler-Smith pair and having one of the older players hit down the middle. Robin Uthappa, currently the No. 4 designated hitter, has scores of 5, 9, 2 and 17 in the competition so far and has struggled to force the pace. Yashasvi Jaiswal, the U-19 World Cup top scorer, has been left out after a failure against Chennai Super Kings and is a worthy fit at the top of the standings, as is Manan Vohra.
McDonald said his team will be reluctant to make knee-jerk decisions, but will contemplate possible solutions to the matter. “That’s [needing to split Buttler and Smith] probably a reflection of the last two games, “he said.” If we look at the first two games, the second in particular, Jos and Steve at the top and Sanju at 3, we feel like the best players at the top who get the most balls give us the best chance of win.
“It’s something we will continue to discuss. Like most teams at this point in the tournament, we probably haven’t settled on the team we’re thinking of. But that’s 100% percent of the right team for us at the moment. We are learning. a lot about our players and we have added 12 new players this year. Every game we get some information, but the key is to make really good decisions going forward and we will evaluate and see where we are and do not hesitate to make some changes where necessary. ”
© Cricbuzz
