Jaipur, May 2: Undeterred by their hopes of securing an IPL playoffs berth this seasons going up in smoke, Rajasthan Royals fielding coach Dishant Yagnik asserted that his side will keep backing youngsters despite criticism over releasing superstars like Jos Buttler and Trent Boult ahead of the mega auction.The 2008 edition champions Rajasthan Royals, who suffered a massive 100-run defeat to Mumbai Indians on Thursday, have only six points from 11 games and are placed a dismal eighth on the points table.RR have several youngsters, including 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who became the youngest player in IPL history to score a century, and opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, but the void left by the exit of former England white-ball skipper Buttler and New Zealand pacer Boult is being felt badly.Asked about the difference between last year’s star-studded team and this editions relatively young and inexperienced side, Yagnik replied, “There’s a great point in your question about star (players). Whenever a new player arrives, he is not a star but he is made into one.”“Last year, the players we had were not stars when they entered the team but they became stars and now the players that we have got in the team, we will make them stars. We don’t buy superstars, we make superstars and this is our tagline,” he said at the post-match media conference.The Royals were in contention for a final berth last year before finishing third on the table with 17 points from 14 games.on Thursday, opener Suryavanshi was out for a duck, while young Jaiswal too could not make an impact, scoring just 13 runs as RR were all out for 117 at their home ground, chasing Mumbai Indians’ 217/2.“Look at Vaibhav Suryavanshi, everyone was happy for him when he was batting (against Gujarat Titans during his 38-ball 101). The entire crowd was happy and in time to come, these guys will become stars and we believe in that,” Yagnik added.Yagnik said the team will have to look at the talent at its disposal, and not think about players like Buttler. The England batter has played some of the most scintillating knocks for RR and was the key to the team’s success in previous editions.“The time has come for you to think beyond. When you don’t have (a player), you have to forget it and move on. We have Vaibhav, Yashasvi Jaiswal… Sanju Samson is our captain, we will go ahead with this team and show it by winning with them,” he said.“There is a lot of time for that, we will analyse and see,” Yagnik added, when asked what about RR’s strategy ahead of the next auction.Yagnik said MI’s skillset on Thursday outmatched RR’s plans on Thursday.“If someone’s skillset weighs heavy on your plans, like Rohit’s (Sharma), Surya’s (Suryakumar Yadav), and Hardik’s (Pandya), you have to give credit. They hit good shots on good balls. GT (Gujarat Titans) said in the last game’s press conference that Vaibhav played class shots. Similarly, you have to give credit to Mumbai Indians where it is due,” he said.Yagnik also defended his team’s preparations despite the players dropping a number of catches this season.“I have been a fielding coach since last eight years and if you check the data, we were always in the top three from 2018 to 2023. You always have that one season in which you drop back-to-back catches and this has happened with every franchise,” he said.“When Ben Stokes had taken the best catch in IPL in 2018 here, I was there as the fielding coach and today when we are dropping sitters, I am here as the fielding coach. It happens, but what matters is your levels of preparation,” he said.Mumbai Indians pacer Deepak Chahar, meanwhile, admitted that bowling alongside world-class bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult makes his task easier.“When you are bowling with world-class partners it becomes easy for you because as a bowler if you have a bad over and if that bad over is backed by a brilliant over or a wicket, then it (becomes) an easy job for me to bowl to the new batter,” he said.Chahar got rid of the Suryavanshi and bowled two economical overs costing him just 13 runs.“Bowling with world-class bowlers who have done well in international cricket and the IPL is helping me and when you bowl as a unit, it becomes difficult for the other team as well.”
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