{"id":22466,"date":"2025-12-16T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=671390"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:44:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T06:14:48","slug":"ipl-2026-auction-what-rajasthan-royals-need-and-who-they-could-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/cricket\/ipl\/ipl-2026-auction-what-rajasthan-royals-need-and-who-they-could-target\/","title":{"rendered":"IPL 2026 Auction: What Rajasthan Royals need and who they could target"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rajasthan Royals enter the IPL<\/a> 2026 mini-auction<\/strong> with a healthy purse of Rs 16.05 crore<\/strong>, nine slots to fill<\/strong>, and just one overseas vacancy<\/strong>, making their strategy clearly centred around strengthening their Indian core<\/strong>. With several big-ticket acquisitions already completed, RR\u2019s auction approach will be about fixing specific gaps rather than wholesale changes.<\/p>\n

Rajasthan Royals squad overview<\/h3>\n

Probable playing XII:<\/strong>
\nVaibhav Suryavanshi<\/a>, Yashasvi Jaiswal<\/a>, Sam Curran<\/a>, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer<\/a>, Dhruv Jurel<\/a> (wk), Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja<\/a>, Jofra Archer<\/a>, Wrist spinner, Tushar Deshpande<\/a>, Sandeep Sharma<\/a><\/p>\n

Other squad members:<\/strong>
\nKwena Maphaka, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Nandre Burger, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Charak<\/p>\n

What Rajasthan Royals need at the auction<\/h3>\n

The acquisitions of Sam Curran, Donovan Ferreira and Ravindra Jadeja<\/strong> have significantly strengthened Rajasthan Royals\u2019 all-round balance. However, the most glaring hole in their squad remains the absence of a frontline wrist spinner<\/strong>. With RR historically thriving on strong spin combinations, the franchise will look to recreate the success of the R Ashwin\u2013Yuzvendra Chahal<\/a> pairing from 2022 to 2024<\/strong>. Identifying a reliable Indian wrist spinner is therefore their top priority.<\/p>\n

With Sanju Samson<\/a> traded out<\/strong>, RR will also require an Indian wicketkeeper as backup<\/strong> to Dhruv Jurel. While Jurel is firmly first choice, the long IPL season demands depth, especially given the impact player rule and the possibility of injuries.<\/p>\n

Bowling performance in key phases is another concern. Rajasthan Royals were the poorest-performing side with the ball in both the middle overs and death overs last season<\/strong>, a statistic that will weigh heavily on their auction planning. While Archer, Sandeep Sharma and Tushar Deshpande provide experience, RR may look to add domestic pace depth<\/strong> to manage workloads more effectively.<\/p>\n

Batting depth is the final area of focus. With several Indian slots to fill, RR will look to add capable domestic batters<\/strong> who can strengthen the bench. If they succeed on that front, the Royals will have the tactical flexibility to rotate one of Shimron Hetmyer or Donovan Ferreira<\/strong> and potentially deploy an overseas seamer<\/strong> depending on match conditions.<\/p>\n

Potential targets for Rajasthan Royals<\/h3>\n

Given their needs and limited overseas flexibility, RR\u2019s shopping list is expected to focus heavily on Indian talent:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Ravi Bishnoi<\/strong> \u2013 first-choice option to lead the wrist-spin department<\/li>\n
  • Rahul Chahar<\/strong> \u2013 experienced IPL leg-spinner with proven middle-overs control<\/li>\n
  • Vignesh Puthur<\/strong> \u2013 emerging wrist-spinner with long-term upside<\/li>\n
  • Yash Raj Punja<\/strong> \u2013 domestic pace option to improve death-overs depth<\/li>\n
  • Sarfaraz Khan<\/strong> \u2013 middle-order batting depth and spin-hitting option<\/li>\n
  • Kartik Sharma<\/strong> \u2013 Indian wicketkeeper-batter cover<\/li>\n
  • Tushar Raheja<\/strong> \u2013 aggressive domestic batting option<\/li>\n
  • Salman Nizar<\/strong> \u2013 reliable domestic middle-order reinforcement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Auction outlook<\/h3>\n

    Rajasthan Royals are well placed to build a strong Indian spine<\/strong> at this auction. With most overseas roles already covered, their success will hinge on landing the right wrist spinner and domestic batting depth<\/strong>. If RR can address their middle-overs bowling concerns and add quality local backups, they will once again shape up as a balanced and dangerous side going into IPL 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Rajasthan Royals enter the IPL 2026 mini-auction with a healthy purse of Rs 16.05 crore, nine slots to fill, and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":24294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ipl"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}