RR skipper Sanju Samson will be absent from the team’s IPL 2025 match against LSG in Jaipur this Saturday due to an abdominal injury.
Rajasthan Royals will have Vice-captain Riyan Parag as their leader while considering 14-year-old left-hand batter Vaibhav Suryavanshi as a possible replacement for Samson in the playing team. If selected, Suryavanshi will become the youngest player to debut in the IPL. However, RR’s squad does not include any other opener besides Suryavanshi, so they may have to choose between Shubham Dubey or wicketkeeper batter Kunal Singh Rathore to fill in as an opening player.
Despite playing as a crucial batting player in Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) first three matches while healing from a finger injury, Samson suffered an abdominal strain during their seventh game against Delhi Capitals (DC) on April 16. He was unable to continue after scoring 31 runs off 19 deliveries, and RR ultimately fell short in the match’s Super Over. Parag, who led the team in the initial three games of the season, will resume his captaincy duties once again.
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Suryavanshi, who celebrated his 14th birthday on March 27, gained recognition during the IPL 2025 auction when RR signed him for INR 1.1 crore at the tender age of 13. He had already made a name for himself as an opener in India’s Under-19 team, impressing with a quickfire century off just 58 balls against Australia. In fact, he played a crucial role in India’s journey to the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup in 2024, scoring an impressive total of 176 runs with an average of 44. Notably, he holds a remarkable record of an unbeaten triple-century (332 runs) in the Randhir Verma Tournament – a prestigious U-19 competition held in Bihar.
There is currently no set timeline for Samson’s recovery. He has been performing well for RR this season, scoring 224 runs in seven innings with an average of 37.33, making him the team’s second highest run-getter. Other than Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal (the top-scorer with 233 runs in seven innings), none of the other batters have reached 200 runs this season. As a result, the team is struggling at eighth place on the IPL 2025 points table and is only avoiding last place due to their net run rate (NRR). After their upcoming game on Saturday, RR’s next match will be on April 24 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in an away fixture.
