Rajasthan Royals had a royal landing of their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 jersey, quite literally, as it landed on a beach in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) off a plane with a skydiver doing the honours. The players, who had a “beach morning” after a “long practice session” the previous night, as revealed by Robin Uthappa in a video posted by Rajasthan on social media, were perplexed at the sight. Riyan Parag, the only member of the squad who had prior information of this development, was one of the first to leap out to the bag that landed form the sky and pick out the jerseys from it.

Official matchday jersey for #IPL2020 has literally @redbullindia | #HallaBol | #RoyalsFamilypic.twitter.com/oCyJasIWV2

— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) September 9, 2020

“Everyone is guessing different things. Everyone is guessing yachts, everyone is guessing jet skis and stuff,” Parag could barely hold his excitement in the video.

The skydiver packed the brand-new jerseys in his backpack and boarded the flight even as the players idled on the beach playing football.

Ankit Rajpoot seemed to draw the attention of his mates to a man descending towards them from the sky, and soon the players were hooked to this intruder who had landed in their midst aided by a parachute.

The guest was given an ovation upon landing as the players soon found out the reason behind his high-flying rendezvous.

Rajasthan are the winners of the inaugural IPL season in 2008 but haven’t been able to repeat the feat since. After a fourth-place finish in 2018, Rajasthan’s performances regressed as they finished seventh in 2019.

Promoted

They will be led by Australia’s Steve Smith this season, who is yet to arrive in the UAE as he is with Australia’s squad in the UK to play two limited-overs series.

Rajasthan play their first IPL match on September 22 against Chennai Super Kings.