Can Rajasthan Royals hit back?

Each and every member of a cricket team is important, whether it is a mere bench warmer, or even the most-talented player. Even if a team misses a player for, say a specified period of time, the entire dynamics of the team changes, and somehow even the performance of the players are affected.

And then, there is the case of Rajasthan Royals.

Now what happened to their players? S Sreesanth, the once-spearhead of the Indian bowling attack, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan, the heart of Rajasthan spin attack, all guilty of possibly the worst crime one can commit in the game of cricket. Moreover, two of their good players also got banned, for not informing the officials, though they have not committed any sort of crime as such.

Imagine the state of the team now. 5 of their key players banned, one of their former player accused. It is indeed difficult to imagine anyone in such a situation. Not only the morale of the players will be down, the team will have to rely on lesser experienced players for the champions league T20. It is not a matter of experience as such. It does take hit on the mental state of the players. Thinking that they played with mates who disgraced the name of cricket just for a few lakh rupees will somehow subconciously makes them worried. The current state Rajasthan Royals facing is similar to the Indian team of 2000 and the more recent spot fixing incidents within the Pakistan team.

Under such circumstances, a strong leader with a good common sense is required. And who else is better to handle such a situation, than Rahul Dravid. This would probably be "the wall’s" last T20 tournament, as he has retired from IPL. Now, as fate has decided, he is leading a team whose morale would be quite low, that too in his last tournament as a RR player. He is a type of player, who leads from the front and inturn, rub the form to his teammates. This was clearly evident from the way he stood up from the front for RR in IPL 6, where they were tagged underdogs, but managed to grab a 3rd place finish. Many of the teams players are absent, but the players who respect the game, will be loyal to their team as ever, and will be roaring to perform. Their batting looks strong, with the likes of Rahane, Dravid himself and local likes of Menaria and not to forget, Shane Watson too. Sanju Samson has been a revealating this IPL, and will play a crucial part in the team’s batting. The team is no short of All-Rounders, with Faulkner and Cooper spearheading the bowling attack too.

They have down, but not out. RR have the capability to string together amazing performances. Moreover, they work as a better team than most of the cricket teams around the world. Now, the only question to be answered is - Can RR bounce back?