Abhinav Mukund, a former batsman for India, discussed the Rajasthan Royals’ auction selections after their Thursday night defeat by the Mumbai Indians, which eliminated them from the IPL 2025 playoffs.

Mukund said that Tushar Deshpande, who RR had paid INR 6.75 crore for during the auction, did not perform well. The selection of Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Nitish Rana, he continued, was also not the best option.

“Archer is the bowler they have spent the most money on and the only one who is good. Their Indian pick, regrettably, did not turn out well. A lot of money (INR 6.75 crore) was spent to get Tushar Deshpande, who was benched for this specific match. However, you had three plus one when you invested in Nitish Rana and Vaibhav Suryavanshi, two additional Indian batters,” Mukund told.

Suryavanshi scored an incredible 101 (38), however in the match versus MI, he was dismissed after two balls. RR was bundled out for a total of just 117 runs in response to MI’s 217 runs, which was an indirect cost of his failure. In the 18th league edition, it signalled the departure of the original winners. The price and selections made by Rana and Suryavanshi in the 2025 IPL auction were questioned.

I would still have refrained from purchasing Nitish Rana for INR 3 crore and Vaibhav Suryavanshi for INR 1.1 crore. Abhinav Mukund.

The former CSK player stated that, although giving it a lot of thought, he did not see the rationale of selecting Suryavanshi and Rana for INR 1.1 crore and 3 crore, respectively. For the same amount, the former Indian player believed that the bowlers would have been a wiser investment. Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Avesh Khan are bowlers he believed RR might have kept or brought back.

“No matter how much I believe, I still would not have paid INR 1.1 crore for Vaibhav Suryavanshi and INR 3 crore (INR 4.2 crore) for Nitish Rana. With that money, I would have bought a few talented bowlers. Mukund continued, “Take a look at their bowling from last year. You still have Avesh Khan, Chahal, Ashwin, Trent Boult, and Sandeep Sharma that are all bankable proper bowlers. Forget about the big names.”