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Rajasthan Royals’ defeat to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru added to their struggles in close run chases, which has been a theme throughout their IPL 2025 campaign.
Rahul Dravid moves on a wheelchair with an injured leg before the start of the IPL game between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals (Picture credit: AFP)
Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has said that it is surprising to see how the Rajasthan Royals, with someone like Rahul Dravid at the helm, are playing some ‘unthinking cricket’, after the Riyan Parag-led side slumped to their fifth consecutive defeat in IPL 2024.
After a narrow 11-run defeat to Bengaluru on Thursday, Gavaskar questioned the franchise’s approach to the match, considering the presence of Dravid as their head coach, with so much experience and knowledge of the game.
Rajasthan’s defeat to Bengaluru added to their struggles in close run chases, which has been a theme throughout their IPL 2025 campaign.
“With Rajasthan Royals, I’m talking about the earlier matches where I wasn’t at the ground. I just saw them. So, you’re not always able to get the feeling of what’s happening. But here, I was on the ground and you could see the kind of cricket that was being played,” Gavaskar said while speaking on Star Sports.
“And with someone like Rahul Dravid as the coach, it was quite baffling—it was unthinking cricket. Dravid was always so precise in his thinking and I would’ve thought that kind of approach would’ve seeped into some of the Rajasthan batters,” Gavaskar added.
The former Indian cricketer questioned the franchise’s thought process during crucial games. Unfortunately, Rajasthan have now bottled three consecutive chases, for the most part in which they looked like the side on top.
“Where is the thought process there? You can’t expect inexperienced players to always get it right, but still… It’s just a different kind of cricket,” Gavaskar said.
The loss to Bengaluru meant Rajasthan are barely hanging by a thread to find a place in the playoffs. They have lost seven games out of nine, and just one more loss will end their IPL 2025 campaign.
Set a target of 206, Rajasthan’s start was brutal with Yashasvi Jaiswal and 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi amassing 52 runs in 27 deliveries before the latter was bowled by a Bhuvneshwar Kumar knuckle ball after the teenager went for one too many.
Suryavanshi was Rajasthan’s impact player. Jaiswal, who began the Rajasthan innings with a six on the leg side off Bhuvneshwar, smacked Yash Dayal for 18 runs as the visitors started the chase in earnest, but they lost themselves midway through it.
