After spending INR 6.75 crore on Tushar Deshpande during the auction, Abhinav Mukund believed he did not perform well for RR. He went on to say that it was also not the best decision to choose Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Nitish Rana.
After the Rajasthan Royals’ defeat by the Mumbai Indians on Thursday night, which resulted in their elimination from the IPL 2025 playoffs, former India batter Abhinav Mukund discussed the team’s auction selections.
Archer is their best bowler and the player they have invested the most in. Regretfully, their Indian selection did not turn out properly. Tushar Deshpande, who was benched for this specific match, was purchased for a substantial sum of money (INR 6.75 crore). However, Mukund told ESPNcricinfo, “You had three plus one things that you invested in two more Indian batters, Nitish Rana and Vaibhav Suryavanshi.”
After hitting an incredible 101 (38), Suryavanshi was dismissed for a two-ball duck in the match against MI. As a result of his failure, RR was bundled out for a mere 117 runs in response to MI’s 217. The league’s first champions from the 18th edition were eliminated. Questions were raised over Rana and Suryavanshi’s selections and pricing in the 2025 IPL auction.
I wouldn’t have spent INR 1.1 crore on Vaibhav Suryavanshi and INR 3 crore on Nitish Rana. Abhinav Mukund
Despite giving it a lot of thought, the former CSK player stated that he did not see the rationale for selecting Suryavanshi and Rana for INR 1.1 crore and 3 crore, respectively. The former Indian player believed that the bowlers would have been a better investment for the same sum. He believed that bowlers like Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Avesh Khan could have been kept or brought back by RR.
“Regardless of my opinion, I would not have purchased Nitish Rana for INR 3 crore (INR 4.2 crore) and Vaibhav Suryavanshi for INR 1.1 crore. I would have bought a few decent bowlers with that money. “Take a look at their bowling from last year. You still have Avesh Khan, Chahal, Ashwin, Trent Boult, and Sandeep Sharma—five bankable, legitimate bowlers,” Mukund continued.
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