Rajasthan Royals are one of the few IPL franchises without a single player from India’s World Cup-winning T20 squad. Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Lucknow Super Giants are also in a similar position.
But coach Kumar Sangakkara believes the Royals have enough depth to make up for the absence of World Cup stars.
“It is what it is,” the Royals head coach said on Thursday.
They had Sanju Samson, the World Cup’s Player of the Tournament, whose inspirational batting helped India clinch the title, but he moved to Chennai Super Kings in a pre-season trade. The Royals management has acknowledged that the void left by their former captain cannot be filled as finding a replacement for him is impossible.
Sanju led the Royals from 2021 to 2025.
“If you talk about Sanjubhaiya, we never think about replacing the kind of player he is,” newly appointed captain Riyan Parag told reporters in a pre-season news conference in Jaipur.
“We can perhaps look for someone with a similar skill-set or have someone bat in his position...It’s like there is no replacement for Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma... In the same way, there is no replacement for Sanjubhaiya because he is such a good player,” Parag said.
Having represented the franchise for 11 years across two stints, Sanju was the
Royals’ most successful captain and leading run-scorer, having guided them to the IPL 2022 final and the playoffs in 2024.
The franchise had a forgettable last season, enduring 10 defeats to finish ninth in the 10-team standings.
Parag, who has been picked as captain following Sanju’s exit, said they lost far too many close matches last year and the 2008 winners need better strategy and planning.
“This year, the focus is to plan better and finish games,” he said.
“We need to plan well. Last year, there were about 5-6 games which we lost in the last over or even on the last ball. Had we been able to convert those, or calculated better, this question would not have been asked because we would have qualified (for the knockouts) by winning those matches,” he said.
“I know in a T20 game, there are a lot of small decisions, as well as major ones like who will bat where and what we will do after winning the toss, which change the course of the game. If we make those small decisions with better strategy and planning, this year will be different.”
The Royals will play their first three home matches in Guwahati this season, opening their campaign against CSK on March 30.