Rajasthan Royals’ fielding coach Dishant Yagnik addressed the media after their elimination from IPL 2025 following a 100-run defeat to Mumbai Indians on Thursday. He defended the team’s strategy of developing young talent rather than buying established stars, while also discussing their execution failures in crucial moments and fielding lapses this season.
The Royals, who won the inaugural IPL in 2008 but have struggled since with only a runners-up finish in 2022, have maintained their philosophy of nurturing young talent like 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, despite letting go of established stars like Jos Buttler and Trent Boult.
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“Whenever a new player has entered our side over the years, they weren’t stars already. They became stars at our franchise. The current bunch, we’re confident that they will become stars, we’ll make them stars. We don’t buy superstars, we make superstars, that’s our tagline. For example, take Vaibhav Suryavanshi, everyone was happy and emotional for him the way he batted. So, in the coming years, guys like him will become stars. Time has come for us to look beyond such things. When we don’t have them, we have to forget and move on. Now we have Vaibhav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson is our captain. We’ll go ahead with this side and we’ll prove our winning ability with this side,” Yagnik explained.
The Royals’ 2025 campaign was particularly hurt by their inability to close out tight matches. They lost three crucial run chases against Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants, and Royal Challengers Bangalore, where they needed single-digit runs in the final over or manageable targets.
“If you look at most of the games, we were often close to winning those matches. In those crunch moments where execution is crucial, we probably fell short in close games and that’s how two points went away from us. As you know, we were dominating in those three games but there was a shortage in execution during crunch moments. It happens in cricket,” Yagnik admitted.
The team’s fielding performance has been notably poor this season, with multiple dropped catches proving costly, including several reprieves given to Suryakumar Yadav in the match against Mumbai Indians.
“I’ve been the fielding coach for eight years now. From 2018 to 2023 if you check the data, we were always in the top three. Once in a while, such a season comes when you miss a lot of catches in back-to-back games. It happens with all franchises. In cricket, taking and missing catches are part and parcel of the game. Even today, three catches were missed. What matters is your level of preparation,” Yagnik stated.
Mumbai Indians posted a formidable total of 217, with Ryan Rickelton and Rohit Sharma scoring fifties, followed by contributions from Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. Yagnik praised MI’s batting performance rather than criticising his bowlers.
“If someone’s skill proves to be a handful for your bowling plans, like Rohit’s skill set, Surya’s skill set. They batted well and hit sixes off really good balls. So, you have to credit Mumbai Indians’ batters for the way they batted, In the last game, GT conceded that Vaibhav played classy shots. Similarly, you need to credit MI for their batting,” he said.
Regarding the decision to bowl first, which proved costly as dew didn’t materialise on the slow surface, Yagnik explained their reasoning: “If you look at the previous games played at this venue, batting has always been easier to bat in the second innings. There is always the expectation of dew. With the weather being a bit overcast then, there was also the possibility of getting some swing early. So, keeping all these technical points in mind, we bowled first.”
