Rajasthan Royals – Franchise, History, IPL Seasons, Players, Grounds, and more
Rajasthan Royals are a franchise cricket team from Jaipur, Rajasthan. The team has been in the Indian Premier League since 2008 when it was one of the first eight IPL teams. It is based at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. The Royals are known for finding hidden but talented people and for getting involved in a number of scandals and controversies.
Under Shane Warne’s leadership, the team won the first IPL, even though the media and fans had written it off as a title contender. Rahul Dravid was the captain of the Royals when they came in second place in the 2013 Champions League Twenty20. Ajinkya Rahane has the most runs on the team with 3098, and Shane Watson has the most wickets with 67.
History of the Franchise
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced in September 2007 that a Twenty20 tournament called the Indian Premier League (IPL) would begin in 2008. In 2008, when the IPL started, there were only eight teams. One of them was the Rajasthan Royals. With a bid of $67 million, Emerging Media bought the Jaipur-based franchise team. This makes it the least expensive team in the league.
As of 2021, the franchise belongs to Emerging Media IPL Ltd, which is led by Manoj Badale and has a 65% stake. Lachlan Murdoch and RedBird Capital Partners are two substantial minority shareholders. There have been disagreements in the past about who owns the team, which caused the team to be kicked out of the league for a short time in 2010. In 2009, the business made $7.5 million before taxes.
History of the team (Rajasthan Royals) – IPL Seasons
The 2008 IPL season
They played the Kings XI Punjab in their inaugural game at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium and emerged victorious by six wickets. Shane Watson was named man of the match for his unbeaten 76 off 49 balls in a successful run chase. Then, in Hyderabad, they beat the favorite team of the season by 3 wickets, which was a significant win. The victory gave everyone a massive boost of confidence. Yusuf Pathan was the first man of the match because he bowled 2/20 in 4 overs and scored 61 runs in 28 balls.
In Jaipur, they beat the Chennai Super Kings, but in Navi Mumbai, they lost to the Mumbai Indians. The following five games were also won by the Royals. They were the first team to get into the semi-finals when they beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 65 runs. In the finals, they played the Chennai Super Kings. The Royals won the final on June 1, 2008, by 3 wickets.
Shane Watson won the man of the tournament award because he was able to contribute to the team in a lot of ways. He scored as many as 472 runs and took 17 wickets. Shane Warne’s leadership and coaching were praised by everyone, even the teams that were playing against them.
The 2009 IPL season
The Royals had won the championship the year before. However, Sohail Tanvir couldn’t play for the team because the PCB didn’t give NOC for Pakistani players to take part in the competition. Also, Shane Watson was out for the whole season when Australia went to the UAE to play Pakistan in an ODI series. Without these two, the team looked a little bit weaker than it did the year before.
Rajasthan Royals finished sixth out of the eight teams in the tournament. They won 6 of the 14 games they played. However, the Royals didn’t make it to the semi-finals because they lost their last two games to Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders.
The 2010 IPL season
After having a pretty average time in South Africa, the Royals went back to India. This time, they looked like they were a better team because they were playing in conditions that should have been best for them. But they had a bad start to the competition, losing to the Mumbai Indians by only 4 runs at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Rajasthan Royals lost to Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Kolkata Knight Riders at home and then lost to Kolkata Knight Riders in the last round-robin game in Kolkata. So, for the second season in a row, they didn’t make it to the playoffs. Instead, they finished 7th out of 8 teams in the competition, winning 6 of the 14 games they played.
The 2011 IPL season
The Rajasthan Royals and the Kings XI Punjab were kicked out of the league because their ownership changes were not reported. The teams were put back together with the help of the High Court. The team management decided to keep Shane Warne and Shane Watson on the team for the next three IPL seasons, even though Warne’s future was still unclear.
The IPL 2011 started with a bang when the Rajasthan Royals beat the Deccan Chargers, led by Kumar Sangakkara, by 8 wickets. The young Indian pacer Siddharth Trivedi was named the man of the match for his spell of 3/15. However, even though they ended their round-robin matches well this time by beating the Mumbai Indians in Mumbai and giving Shane Warne a good send-off, Rajasthan was kicked out of the competition because they finished 6th out of the 10 teams in the tournament, winning 6 of the 14 games they played (one was a no result) and losing the rest.
The 2012 IPL season
In the fifth season of the IPL, Rajasthan Royals won only seven of their sixteen games, which put them in seventh place in terms of points.
The 2013 IPL season
By coming in third in the group stage, Rajasthan Royals earned a spot in the playoff round of the 2013 Champions League Twenty20. They beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator, but they lost to Mumbai Indians in the second qualifier, which got them kicked out of the tournament. Later, Shane Watson was chosen as the tournament’s top player.
The 2014 IPL season
The Rajasthan Royals kept five players for the seventh season of the IPL. These players are Sanju Samson, Ajinkya Rahane, Shane Watson, James Faulkner, and Stuart Binny. James Faulkner scored 65 runs off the last 17 balls at a strike rate of 382.35 to win the game against RCB. Shane Watson was in charge of the team, and Rahul Dravid helped him.
The 2015 IPL season
In the 2015 IPL, Rajasthan Royals finished fourth in the league stage, which got them into the playoffs. However, they lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore in the eliminator, which got them kicked out of the tournament.
The 2018 IPL season
After being banned from the IPL for two years, the Rajasthan Royals came back in 2018. Before the IPL auction for the 2018 season, the Royals repurchased Steve Smith for 120 million (US$1.5 million) and named him captain for the 2018 season. However, after the ball-tampering scandal in March 2018, Smith stepped down as captain of the Royals. Ajinkya Rahane took his place. Smith was then told that he couldn’t play in the IPL in 2018.
With 14 points, the Royals were able to finish in fourth place during the regular season. But they were knocked out of the playoffs by Kolkata Knight Riders in the elimination game. They lost by 25 runs at Eden Gardens, which put them out of the playoffs.
The 2019 IPL season
Before the 2019 IPL Auction, the Royals kept 16 players and let go of 9. The team of Rajasthan bought 9 players at the auction. Before the 2019 Indian Premier League, Paddy Upton was named the coach of the Royals. At the beginning of the season, Ajinkya Rahane kept his position as captain. However, on April 20, 2019, Steve Smith replaced Ajinkya Rahane as captain of the Rajasthan Royals after a row of poor results.
The 2020 IPL season
Andrew McDonald was the head coach of the Royals in the 2020 Indian Premier League. He took over for Paddy Upton. Steve Smith was chosen to be the team’s captain again. The team had a great start to the season because they won their first two games. But they couldn’t keep up the excellent work. After that win, they lost four games in a row and ended the season with the fewest points. They won barely six among the fourteen games they played. Even though Rajasthan finished last, Jofra Archer, one of their bowlers, was named the most valuable player of the season.
The 2021 IPL season
Before the auction for the 2021 Indian Premier League, which took place on January 20, 2021, Rajasthan let go of eight players, including their captain, Steve Smith. They also said that Sanju Samson would be captain for the 2021 season on the same day.
The 2022 IPL season
Before the big auction in 2022, the team chose to keep three players – Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, and Yashasvi Jaiswal. A series of fabulous performances from several players helped Rajasthan finish as the runner-up for the season.
Standings of Rajasthan Royals in All Seasons
| Year | League table standing | Final position |
| 2008 | 1st out of 8 | Champions |
| 2009 | 6th out of 8 | Group stage |
| 2010 | 7th out of 8 | Group stage |
| 2011 | 6th out of 10 | Group stage |
| 2012 | 7th out of 9 | Group stage |
| 2013 | 3rd out of 9 | Playoffs |
| 2014 | 5th out of 8 | Group stage |
| 2015 | 4th out of 8 | Playoffs |
| 2018 | 4th out of 8 | Playoffs |
| 2019 | 7th out of 8 | Group stage |
| 2020 | 8th out of 8 | Group stage |
| 2021 | 7th out of 8 | Group stage |
| 2022 | 2nd out of 10 | Runners-up |
Results by Year of Rajasthan Royals
| Years | Matches | Wins | Losses | No Result | Success Rate |
| 2008 | 16 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 81.25% |
| 2009 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 46.15% |
| 2010 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 42.86% |
| 2011 | 14 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 46.15% |
| 2012 | 16 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 43.75% |
| 2013 | 18 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 61.11% |
| 2014 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 50.00% |
| 2015 | 15 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 53.85% |
| 2016 | Suspended | ||||
| 2017 | Suspended | ||||
| 2018 | 15 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 46.67% |
| 2019 | 14 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 38.46% |
| 2020 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 42.85% |
| 2021 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 35.71% |
| Total | 178 | 86 | 87 | 5 | 48.31% |
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