After the Rajasthan Royals (RR) failed to complete yet another run-chase on Thursday, April 24, Sunil Gavaskar questioned their game knowledge. At the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the first champions lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by 11 runs after needing just 18 runs from the final two overs with five wickets remaining.
The Rajasthan batsmen lacked the enthusiasm and self-assurance to cross the finish line, despite Josh Hazlewood’s outstanding penultimate over, in which he claimed two wickets and gave up just one run. The team captained by Riyan Parag was held to 194/9 while chasing a 206-run goal.
Despite having Rahul Dravid, who is renowned for his all-encompassing tactics, as their head coach,
Sunil Gavaskar was shocked to see the Royals’ hitters faltering under duress.
“With the Rajasthan Royals, I’m referring to the earlier games that I simply watched from outside the stadium. Therefore, it’s not always possible to sense what’s actually happening. I was at the ground here, though, and you could see the type of cricket being played. And it was quite perplexing, it was mindless cricket with someone like Rahul Dravid as the coach,” Gavaskar stated in an interview with Star Sports.
“Where is that mental process? Even so, you can’t count on novice players to always do it properly. Simply said, it’s a distinct species of cricket. He continued, “I would have thought that kind of approach would have seeped into some of the Rajasthan batters, as Dravid was always so precise in his thinking.”
“Where is the process of thought? It’s unrealistic to expect novice players to constantly get it perfectly, but nevertheless… It’s simply a distinct species of cricket. Dravid was always so exact in his thinking, and I would have assumed that some of the Rajasthan batsmen would have adopted that mindset,” he continued.
As head coach of the Men in Blue, Dravid’s final responsibility was leading India to the T20 World Cup championship in June 2024. Following his departure from the Indian squad, he rejoined the Royals. His return to the team hasn’t been very noteworthy, though, given the Royals are virtually eliminated from the playoffs. They have only won two of their nine games, and Thursday was their ninth loss of the year.
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