5 Players you didn't know once played for RR

Inaugural champions Rajasthan Royals went to the 2008 Indian Premier League season with no expectations whatsoever. There were questions all over the team as the experts believed that they didn’t have the quality that was needed to win the championship. Their captain Shane Warne proved everyone wrong and won the title in the opening season. They defined the ‘Yatra Pratibha Avsara Prapnotihi’ motto perfectly, which means, Where Talent Meets Opportunity.

Rajasthan could never win the title again in the next sixteen editions after 2008. They came close in 2022 when the Sanju Samson-led side qualified for the final, but Gujarat Titans in their debut season defeated them by seven wickets in the final. They have nevertheless been a very good side on the paper in the last few years. The franchise has invested heavily in the youth, and it gave them the result as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel seem to be the future of the team.

However, it wasn’t the same always. Every season RR used to bring in new players and experiment with them and courtesy of the same, a lot of top cricketers once represented the franchise.

Here are five players you may not know once played for RR:

5. Justin Langer

One of Australia’s greatest Test openers, Justin Langer was part of the Rajasthan Royals squad for two seasons - 2008 and 2009. However, he never turned for the tournament, declining Rajasthan’s invite to join the team. The cricketer was worried about the future of the sport and didn’t want to participate in a T20 tournament where the players were given big-money contracts.

He also didn’t want to leave Somerset, a team he was captaining at that time in the county championship. In 2009, he was once again part of the squad but didn’t feature. He also announced his retirement after that season. Ahead of that, he played Champions League (CLT20) for Somerset.

After his retirement, Langer joined Western Australia as their coach and after 16 years staying away from IPL, Langer joined Lucknow Super Giants as their head coach for IPL 2024. The KL Rahul-led side failed to qualify for the playoffs but yet, Langer is expected to continue as LSG’s head coach.