The heartbreak of the 2022 IPL final will still be playing fresh on their minds as Rajasthan Royals hope for a winning start when they open their Indian Premier League 2024 campaign against the Lucknow Super Giants at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Sunday.

Rajasthan Royals, the inaugural IPL champions, had finished second to Gujarat Titans in 2022, and looked good in the initial stages even last season before slipping to a fifth place finish in the end.

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Rajasthan skipper Sanju Samson will have one eye on the potential wicketkeeper-batter’s role for the T20 World Cup in June, and keeping that in mind, will be keen to find his rhythm right from the start.

His opposite number KL Rahul, back after recovering from a quadriceps injury, will be hoping for an injury-free season after having missed the last four Tests against England due to pain in his right quadriceps. He was out for four months last year after undergoing a thigh surgery.

Having guided his team to playoffs in the past two seasons, Rahul will hope to take the team to the distance this season, and for that the skipper would be expected to lead from the front with the bat, even if he skips the wicketkeeping part at least for the initial few matches.

As far as the teams are concerned, both sides will have to take some tough calls to form the core in the initial phases of the tournament. RR boasts of a solid batting line-up with the likes of in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag besides skipper Samson. They also have a finisher in Dhruv Jurel, who made an impressive India debut in the recent Test series against England. They also have the West Indian power-hitters Rovman Powell and Shimron Hetmyer, capable of taking the game away from the opposition at any moment.

With Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal in their ranks, RR’s spin bowling attack looks a potent unit, while the pace battery will be led by New Zealand’s experienced campaigner Trent Boult in the company of Avesh Khan and Nandre Burger.

Coming to the LSG unit, Rahul will be looking at notable contributions with the bat from the experienced Quinton de Kock, Marcus Stonis and Nicholas Pooran. Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal and Krunal Pandya can be entrusted with the finishing responsibilities.

If one takes a look at LSG’s pace bowling unit, it wears a rather amateurish look after foreign recruits Mark Wood and David Willey were ruled out and the Indian talents like tearaway quick Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan plagued by fitness issues. In their absence, West Indian Shamar Joseph and Afghanistan’s Naveen ul Haq could spearhead the attack with the Indian pair of Yash Thakur and Shivam Mavi.

Like Rajasthan, Lucknow, however, posses a potent spin attack, comprising the leg-spin duo of Ravi Bishnoi and the 41-year-old veteran Amit Mishra. Krunal could add to the variety in their attack with his slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling.