With their commanding 50-run win against Punjab Kings in Match 18 of IPL 2025, Rajasthan Royals have joined the clutch of teams on four points from four games in the table. They began with two ordinary losses, but have found their momentum back after two wins on the trot. The game against Chennai Super Kings was a tight victory, but against PBKS, the performance was clinical.
It was also down to several tactical calls that they got right. That might have been down to Sanju Samson returning as full-time captain too. Samson now has 31 wins as RR skipper, one more than the late, great Shane Warne, who had 30.
Four overs for Jofra Archer
There are few sights more beautiful in modern-day cricket than Jofra Archer steaming in, his form and pace on point. He began IPL 2025 with indifferent form, but hit beautiful rhythm against CSK. Strangely enough, despite having figures of 3-1-13-1, he wasn’t given a fourth over. Even when the chase was getting close, and a bowler of Archer’s calibre would have been the natural choice to go to, especially given how he had bowled in the game.
Against PBKS though, the error was not repeated. Archer had bowled an irresistible first over. Priyansh Arya castled first ball, and most importantly Shreyas Iyer last ball. Clearly, his last-match form was holding up. And this time, Archer got all four overs. As a bonus, he got the Player of the Match too, for his figures of 3 for 25.
It should be a basic tenet of cricket – unless Archer has an injury, or is in completely lacklustre form, he needs to bowl his full quota of overs.
The Hetmyer puzzle
In the first three games, Shimron Hetmyer batted at No.6, then No.8 and then No.7. In two of those games, he was pushed even behind Wanindu Hasaranga, who is a useful batter, but nowhere in the same class as Hetmyer.
Now, T20 lends itself to timing entry points and match-ups uniquely. But even accounting for Hetmyer being much better at smashing pace than spin and trying to time his entry point to suit that, the Royals didn’t really gain anything. They would have, if batters with complementary skillsets were sent ahead of Hetmyer, but for all his numerous qualities, Hasaranga is not among those batters.
Till this game, Hetmyer’s entries were so delayed, his main job seemed to be fielding at the hot spots on the boundary and taking excellent catches. He did that against PBKS too, but also batted at No.5 and came in earlier than before. Batting earlier doesn’t guarantee success of course, but it at least gives the Royals the best chance of higher totals.
The playing XI solution
The Royals have drawn criticism for seemingly not making use of the Impact Player rule, particularly while batting first. But here, they might actually have been doing the smart thing. The contentious issue is playing five bowlers when batting first. Most teams bring in the extra bowler when fielding, and keep the extra batter in the line-up when batting. But Royals haven’t done that. The reason for that is, given the quality of the top order they have, the extra batter might not be used at all. If two or three out of Jaiswal, Samson, Parag, Nitish Rana, Jurel or Hetmyer come off, then it is very likely that Royals’ won’t need the extra batter anyway. Their selected ones would have batted the majority of the innings. This gives Royals’ the flexibility of adding an extra bowler while defending, a very useful ace up your sleeve to have particularly if the pitch and conditions favour a certain type of bowling. They did that against PBKS, bringing in Kumar Kartikeya to give themselves a left-arm spinning option. If there had been a collapse in the first innings, they would have added a batter as the Impact Sub, which is how they have used Shubham Dubey. In this game, they didn’t need to, and it meant they could add greater strength and variety to their bowling attack.
Getting tactics right is one part. The key is executing plans. Against Punjab, it all came together for the Royals.
