Aakash Chopra was confused Rajasthan Royals' (RR) Call to retain West Indies finisher Shimron Hetmyer and release England's captain with the white ball Jos Buttler before the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025) Mega auction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on November 24th and 25th.
Rajasthan were the only team apart from defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to retain their full quota of six players ahead of the auction. Captain Sanju Samson (INR 18 crore), Yashasvi Jaiswal (INR 18 crore), Riyan Parag (INR 14 crore), Dhruv Jurel (INR 14 crore), Shimron Hetmyer (INR 11 crore) and Sandeep Sharma (INR 4 crore) were the six players acquired from the first IPL champions.
Apart from Buttler, Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal were two other star players released by the Rajasthan-based franchise. Chopra noted that the Royals have many players on their roster who are good enough to be retained and that some of their decisions are being questioned as a result.
“Rajasthan Royals was a team that needed to keep a lot of players. Whoever they left behind would have been unhappy. There are certainly questions. The three names that would definitely stay included Sanju Samson, the captain, and Yashasvi Jaiswal. “It was known that the two would stay 100 percent,” Chopra said in a video shared on his YouTube channel.
“It was assumed that Riyan Parag would also stay, and he stayed despite what people thought cricket-players/jos-buttler/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Jos Buttler would be kept in front of Riyan Parag. Jos was not retained and Shimron Hetmyer was retained. What is the logic? “They let Jos Buttler go and also no longer have RTM,” Chopra added.
Whenever Jos is doing well, he wins the match: Chopra
Furthermore, Aakash Chopra recalled that the England wicketkeeper-batsman won games for Rajasthan even when he was not at his best. The 34-year-old Buttler scored 3,055 runs in 82 innings for the Royals at a staggering average of 41.84 and an impressive strike rate of 147.79. He also registered 18 half-centuries and seven tons during his time with the Royals.
Also read: Top 5 Rajasthan Royals Players in IPL History
“I admit that Jos Buttler's last two years weren't that good, but when he played poorly he scored two centuries, both in winning causes. Whenever Jos does well he wins the match but they let him go. It seems.” “Since Jos also plays for the Paarl Royals, I was very surprised that they let Jos go.”
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