Rajasthan Royals. (Source -IPL/BCCI)

It has been a season of so near yet so far for the Rajasthan Royals. Sanju Samson’s team were the early pace-setters in the tournament. After occupying the top of the table for more than half the season the Royals lost their form and ultimately lost four matches in succession to be overtaken by Kolkata Knight Riders.

Rajasthan Royals finally made it to the playoffs as the third-placed team and played the Eliminator game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. A win against Faf Du Plessis and his team meant that the Royals played Sunrisers Hyderabad in the second qualifier which they happened to lose.

The last few years have seen the Royals emerge as one of the strongest teams in the league. Sanju Samson didn’t want to tinker with the team that was on a roll but that meant a few deserving stars missed out on selection during IPL 2024. 

Let’s take a closer look at 3 players who were underutilized by Rajasthan Royals during IPL 2024:

3. Keshav Maharaj

Keshav Maharaj ( Photo source: X / Twitter )

The South African was drafted into the Rajasthan Royals squad after Prasidh Krishna was ruled out of IPL 2024 due to injury. Keshav Maharaj played just two games and picked two wickets before he was benched for the rest of the campaign. In his second and final game of his maiden IPL season, Maharaj got the wickets of Jonny Bairstow and Sam Curran to play a key role in a win for the Royals. Despite his economical spell, Maharaja could not make his way back into the team and this raised questions as to why the Royals underutilized Keshav Maharaj.

2. Kuldeep Sen

Kuldeep Sen. (Source – IPL/BCCI)

The 27-year-old pace bowler Kuldeep Sen made his mark for the Rajasthan Royals in the first game he played by picking 3/41 against Gujarat Titans. Three more wickets from the next two matches meant that the Indian bowling sensation had picked 6 wickets from 3 matches. Inexplicably, the Royals decided to bench Kuldeep Sen and massively underutilized his potential for the rest of the season. 

1. Donovan Ferreira

Donovan Ferreira. (Source -Rajasthan Royals)

Young Donovan Ferreira who was brought during the IPL 2023 auctions had warmed the benches for the whole of last season. The South African finally made his IPL debut but sadly played just two matches and could score just 8 runs in total before he was sent back to the dugout. The 25-year-old with a strike rate of 152 was immensely underutilized by the RR management despite possessing everything needed to succeed in the T20 format.