Follow UsRajasthan Royals, who won the first season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) but have been trophyless since then, have often been blamed for investing more than required on youngsters.
Ahead of the IPL 2025 auction, RR let go of Jos Buttler, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, and a couple of more senior players and retained the likes of Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag for INR 14 crore each.
Fast forward to Match 50 of the IPL 2025, RR are out of the competition following a massive 100-run defeat against Mumbai Indians (MI) on May 1 (Thursday). They have lost eight of their 11 games so far in the ongoing season.
Talking about RR’s approach, fielding coach Dishant Yagnik said: "Whenever a new player has entered our side over the years, they weren't stars already.
"They became stars at our franchise. The current bunch, we're confident that they will become stars, we'll make them stars. We don't buy superstars, we make superstars, that's our tagline.
"For example, take Vaibhav Suryavanshi, everyone was happy and emotional for him the way he batted. So, in the coming years, guys like him will become stars.
"Time has come for us to look beyond such things (regretting not retaining players like Buttler). When we don't have them, we have to forget and move on.
“Now we have Vaibhav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson is our captain. We'll go ahead with this side and we'll prove our winning ability with this side."
Talking about RR’s season so far, Yagnik added: "If you look at most of the games, we were often close to winning those matches. In those crunch moments where execution is crucial, we probably fell short in close games and that's how two points went away from us.
“As you know, we were dominating in those three games (against DC, LSG and RCB) but there was a shortage in execution during crunch moments. It happens in cricket."
Against MI, RR could only pick two wickets and allowed MI to amass 217 in their 20 overs, with the likes of Ryan Rickelton, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya smashing Jofra Archer and Co. all around the park.
"If someone's skill proves to be a handful for your bowling plans, like Rohit's skill set, Surya's skill set, they batted well and hit sixes off really good balls,” said Yagnik.
“So, you have to credit Mumbai Indians' batters for the way they batted, In the last game, GT conceded that Vaibhav played classy shots. Similarly, you need to credit MI for their batting."