30th March 2010 - New Delhi : The Rajasthan Royals are the most unfancied — and underrated — side in the Indian Premier League. Despite winning the inaugural edition of the tournament, the Royals have never been the favourites to repeat their success.
Perennial slow starters, the Shilpa Shetty co-owned franchise prefer to stay below the radar and creep up on their opponents. Their charismatic skipper Shane Warne has once again managed to turn the team around in IPL-3, stitching together four wins on the trot to climb to third place on the points table. The former Australia leg-spinner banks largely on team effort, spiced with spurts of individual brilliance.
"We are always the underdogs in this competition but in spite of that we have over 500,000 supporters outside the country apart from those in India," Warne told this newspaper on the sidelines of an event in the capital on Tuesday.
"For me it's all about finding the right roles for everyone. My job as the captain and coach is to find guys who will gel in the team. Superstars bring a lot of baggage and a lot more attention. We prefer going along quietly and this has worked well for us in the past."
After a poor start in IPL-3, the Royals have made themselves firm contenders for a semi-finals spot based on their recent form. "The secret to our success is the faith that we have in our Indian players. We have the best team culture and everyone in the side is treated equally.
"There were a lot of one-on-one talks and pepping up to do after two shocking early losses, and this has brought about a massive turnaround," the Royals skipper said.
Injuries and non-availability of players means new heroes have emerged for the Royals. Michael Lumb, the 30-year-old Yorkshire southpaw, was an unknown entity outside England but has already shown his utility for the Rajasthan side as an attacking opener with 126 runs at a strike-rate of 130. Railways' Faiz Fazal (101 runs) and Bengal batsman Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (128 runs) have also displayed their abilities.
"Any team that loses players like Smith, Dimitri, (Shane) Watson, (Ravindra) Jadeja and Amit Singh — five good players — will find it very tough. It also means opportunity for players like Lumb, who has done extremely well in the last couple of matches. (Adam) Voges has been great addition to the side, playing two super knocks and contributed with the ball as well," Warne felt.
On the Indian players doing well for the side, Warney said, "Fazal is playing well, he does get cute with a few shots but has a good head on his shoulder. Sid (Trivedi) is a very important member of the side, who mixes up his deliveries well."
Warne is the second highest-wicket taker in IPL with 33 wickets in 28 matches behind Deccan Chargers' R.P. Singh, who has 38.
The leg-spinner is also the bowler hit for most sixes but is not perturbed by this statistic, saying, "When I retired I had the most wickets and also got hit for the most sixes in the Tests. In IPL, I am the second highest wicket-taker and even if I get hit for sixes but win the match at the end of the day, I am happy with that."
On his one true match-winner Yusuf Pathan, he said, "Yusuf is a good cricketer and not just a slogger. He has the ability to win the match off his own blade scoring a 40-ball 80. If we can win without big contributions off his bat, it is always good for the team."
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