IPL 2023: Rajasthan eyes improved batting effort against Hyderabad

Bruised and battered in its last game, Rajasthan Royals would look for a much-improved effort from the batting unit against Sunrisers Hyderabad in order to avoid a hat trick of defeats in the IPL at Jaipur on Sunday.

Rajasthan dished out a shoddy batting display as it was bowled out for 118 by Gujarat Titans on Friday.

Despite back-to-back defeats against Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans, Rajasthan has managed to hold on to its spot in the top four of the standings with five wins and as many losses.

In its last outing Rajasthan, which boasts of one of the potent opening duo of the in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler, put up a disastrous batting display.

But the duo failed to live up to the expectations.

Rajasthan has always looked like a dominating side when Jaiswal and Buttler click but the team management would be concerned with the inconsistent run of its middle-orders as the likes of Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag and Shimron Hetmyer are yet to fire in unison.

Rajasthan coach Kumar Sangakkara didn't mince his words in criticising the effort of his batters, especially against the spinners.

"You can't sit and wait in T20 cricket and let the bowlers bowl to us...we played a very poor game," a livid Sangakkar said.

"Even a defence in T20 cricket has to have the intent of wanting to score. You work down the sequence of 6, 4, 3, 2, 1; or, if you're under pressure, you go 4, 3, 2, 1. But you are always looking for opportunities to score, and at the minimum, getting off strike.

"And once that intent is shown, it doesn't matter how good a bowler you are, you are always thinking that you can't give the batter anything loose because you're going to get put away. So that's one area that we've got to really look at," he added.

On the bowling front too, Rajasthan will have to pull up the socks with Trent Boult and Adam Zampa going for runs.

The onus would be on Boult and Sandeep Sharma to provide a good start and the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal taking charge.

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