Rajasthan Royals' decision to rest key players against Mumbai Indians defied logic

AHMEDABAD: Rajasthan Royals' decision to drop three key players and make four changes in the crucial match against Mumbai Indians on Monday has raised eyebrows.
It turned out to be an extremely costly mistake since Mumbai won the match by 25 runs, while a win would have virtually sealed a spot in the playoffs for the Royals.
It seemed strange when Royals decided to drop the inform Ajinkya Rahane, their most dependable batsman in conditions here on Monday .They also dropped their best spinner, Pravin Tambe, and opted for Ankit Sharma. Brad Hodge came in for the proven match-winner Steve Smith.
For the record, the Royals don't have a clean record at the Motera, having lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad here earlier, so the changes defied logic, especially after their seamer Kane Richardson's declaration on match eve that the team was not keen on making undue changes.
"Mumbai is a strong team and we can't take them lightly," Richardson had said.
Later, there were no clear answers forthcoming from the players when the matter was raised at the media interaction.
Brad Hodge merely said, "I think a couple of them have slight injuries." Asked if all three players -regulars in the squad so far -had suddenly picked up injuries, Hodge said, "Possibly. Not sure. Rahane hurt himself in the last match. Pravin was feeling a slight back pain but other than that everything is fine. And Steve, I am not sure about."
He later added: "It is hard to replace someone like Rahane and Tambe but unfortunately they injured themselves. But Ankit, who came in for Tambe, did an outstanding job."
The win kept Mumbai's slim hopes alive while the Royals remained stuck in third place on the table with 14 points with two games remaining against Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians.
Rajasthan were in the eye of a storm last year when they were embroiled in the spot-fixing scandal, with some of their players even being arrested.