IPL 2021: Rajasthan Royals sign Evin Lewis and Oshane Thomas for the UAE leg

With less than three weeks to go for the second leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL), the franchises are busy finalizing replacements for their unavailable players. Rajasthan Royals will miss two of their key players Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes due to personal reasons in the UAE leg of the tournament. The franchise has signed the West Indies duo of Evin Lewis and Oshane Thomas as their replacements.

While most of the overseas players are available for the remaining 31 matches of the IPL, a few England and Australian players have opted to not play for various reasons. Buttler is one of them who wants to stay with his family and is also expecting the birth of his second child. Stokes, on the other hand, is on a break from cricket and might be targeting the T20 World Cup to make a comeback.

As far as their replacements are concerned, Lewis is a like for like replacement for Buttler at the top of the order. The southpaw has played for the Mumbai Indians before in the 2018 and 2019 seasons. He has scored 430 runs in 16 matches at a strike-rate of 131.1 with two fifties to his name.

Oshane Thomas played for Royals before

This is the second stint for Oshane Thomas for the Royals in IPL having featured for the franchise in 2019 season. He had picked five wickets then in four appearances but was released later despite a decent show. This is another chance for Thomas to showcase his bowling abilities in the cash-rich league.

Earlier, the Royals signed World number 1 T20I bowler Tabraiz Shamsi as Andrew Tye’s replacement while New Zealand batsman Glenn Phillips took Jofra Archer’s place in the squad for the remainder of the IPL 2021.

The Sanju Samson’s led side is still in the hunt to make it to the playoffs. But they will have to play really well for that to happen. Currently the Royals are at the fifth position in the points table with three wins from seven matches.