Rajasthan Royals

Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson on Tuesday said his team will have to improve a bit and execute their plans better in the upcoming matches of the IPL 2022 after starting their campaign with a big, 61-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals here. Williamson said his team started on a good note with pacer Umran Malik hitting the 150kmph mark in the first over itself.

England cricketer and star Rajasthan Royals batter Jos Buttler said he is "quite flattered" at being retained by the franchise ahead of this year's edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), adding that it showed that the team "had placed their trust in me".

Fresh from a successful Test series against Sri Lanka, veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has joined up with his new franchise Rajasthan Royals and is raring to go ahead of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season.

Rajasthan Royals on Friday appointed former Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga as their fast-bowling coach ahead of the upcoming IPL 2022 season. The 38-year-old T20 World Cup-winning captain Malinga, who represented Sri Lanka in 340 matches across the three formats and picked up 546 wickets, will oversee the preparation of bowling strategies in the build-up and during the season.

2008 IPL champions Rajasthan Royals on Friday announced that Steffan Jones will rejoin the franchise as the high performance fast-bowling coach. The 48-year-old Jones, a former pacer from Wales who played for Kent, Somerset, Northamptonshire and Derbyshire in County Cricket and picked 387 wickets in 148 first-class matches, had previously served as the team's fast-bowling coach in 2019. 

A total of 204 players were picked by the 10 franchise after shelling out a total of Rs 551.70 cr during the enthralling two day IPL 2022 mega auction with Ishan Kishan (Rs 15.25 cr), Deepak Chahar (Rs 14 cr) and Shreyas Iyer (Rs 12.25 cr) emerging as top-three earners, ahead of the exciting 15th season of cash-rich league.

Following seven losses -- three of them in a row -- the Sanju Samson-led side despite sterling performances from the skipper has slid on the points table and are currently placed seventh with eight points from 11 games. Their hopes of making the playoffs hang by the proverbial thread and their match against Chennai Super Kings later on Saturday will be crucial to their chances.

Chasing 150, Bangalore were off to a flying start as Virat Kohli slammed Chris Morris for three boundaries in the opening over. Devdutt Padikkal crunched Kartik Tyagi for two boundaries in the second over before slamming Mustafizur Rahman for a brace of boundaries in the next over. Bangalore were 48 for no loss in five overs before Padikkal, dropped at six, swung across the line, only for Rahman to disturb the stumps.

While Buttler will miss the tournament due to the birth of his second child, Rajasthan Royals' (RR) English pace bowler Jofra Archer, who is nursing an elbow injury which forced him to sit out of the ongoing series against India, will also miss the lucrative league. The franchise has brought in New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman Glenn Phillips as Buttler's replacement.

London-based venture capitalist Manoj Badale's investment firm Emerging Media owns the majority stake. "Such an investment is testament to the global standing of the IPL and India as an attractive investment destination," Badale said. Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird, said, "The IPL is a dynamic league with a global audience and forward-thinking mindset regarding fan and player engagement."