IPL 2019: Circumspect captaincy by Ajinkya Rahane, team approach stall Rajasthan Royals

During the course of the drama-filled last over in the Rajasthan Royals-Chennai Super Kings match in Jaipur on Thursday, Ajinkya Rahane had a couple of long conversations with bowler Ben Stokes. Also joining in were Steve Smith and Jos Buttler, including before the final delivery that went for a six and gave CSK the victory.

For someone watching an RR game for the first time, it would've been hard to identify the decision-maker in that little conference; a captain who would solely zero in on a plan with the bowler, a leader who would portray calmness even in those highly tensed moments.

Instead, what one saw was four people talking, an uncertain plan, a confused bowler, a nervous skipper.

In many ways, Rahane's captaincy has been an accurate reflection of the way RR have played throughout the season: they've been unsure about their approach, too often being too circumspect.

It thus isn't a surprise that in a league that rewards daredevilry (Kolkata Knight Riders) and street-smartness (Chennai Super Kings), the boys in pink are languishing second from the bottom as they take on Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede in a must-win game here on Saturday.

Going purely by traditional cricketing sense, there's little wrong with the way Rahane goes about leading his team — he backs his players on the field despite a few failures, and says all the right things off it to instill positivity among the troops, like "there's no need to panic".

But this is the IPL, where conventional thought process is passé, and risk-takers are primed for glory.

Case in point is two moves by two different captains on similar batting-friendly surfaces against the same opposition.

Defending a solid 198/2 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Hyderabad, Rahane would've known breaking their dangerous opening combo of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow would've been half the job done. Yet, he didn't bowl his No. 1 strike spinner Shreyas Gopal until the powerplay was finished, and by that time, SRH had cruised to 69/0 in six overs. For the record, Gopal snapped up Bairstow in his second over but by then, the tide had already turned towards SRH.

Contrast that to Kings XI Punjab taking on SRH at home, where captain Ravichandran Ashwin — who has stood out with his out of the box tactics as an IPL captain — threw the ball to Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the second over of the innings. The Afghan spinner dismissed Bairstow off the fourth ball. The backbone of SRH broken, KXIP easily won the match.

The lack of boldness has also rubbed off on RR as a batting unit, with the team posting a total of over 175 just once in the six matches so far, with the think-tank realising the need to go harder in the powerplay overs only before its previous encounter.

It doesn't help that the captain himself has notched up just 138 runs in six games at a strike rate of 127, or that Steve Smith isn't yet looking polished after his return from the ban and an elbow injury, or that Ben Stokes has done nothing of note with the willow in hand.

Perhaps, RR might consider sending the clean-hitting Rahul Tripathi at the top of the order, or giving the dangerous Ashton Turner a game in place of Stokes or Smith, who will both leave after May 1 for World Cup preparations with their respective national teams, anyway.

Some radical thinking is the need of the hour for the Royals, both for its captain and its playing style.

And, it has to be done starting Saturday, for they might have nothing to play for thereafter.