Rajasthan Royals (RR) are in a precarious position. The 2008 champions might get knocked out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season after just 8 matches. Having won just 2 games out of the 7 they’ve played, RR need to win at least 6 matches to confirm their place in the IPL 2025 Playoffs.
Will Sanju Samson play against LSG?
Doing that in itself is a herculean task. But even before possibly imagining doing that, RR might have lost their captain, Sanju Samson. The wicketkeeper batter had injured himself in the last match against the Delhi Capitals and had retired out. Samson didn’t come out to bat, and after the match stated that he was alright.
But RR head coach Rahul Dravid has revealed that matters might be serious. Samson was taken for scans, but the results weren’t in yet. In less than 4 hours, the match will start, but no one has an idea whether the RR captain will play or not. But given Samson had injured his hand before and required surgery, he and the BCCI might be very cautious. Therefore, there is a good chance he won’t play against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
Vaibhav Suryavanshi to make IPL debut at 14?
There has been a lot of talk about Vaibhav Suryavanshi and whether he’ll play or not. But if Samson isn’t fit, he might be RR’s best option. They don’t have many replacement batters in their squad. This means either Kunal Singh Rathod or Suryavanshi can play.
Now, Kunal bats in the middle order and hasn’t played a T20 match since October 2023. Suryavanshi, meanwhile, opened in the only T20 match he played in November last year for Bihar. Taking that into account, it makes perfect sense to play the 14-year-old. He’ll be a like-for-like replacement for Samson in this regard. Suryavanshi may be young, but RR can’t test him without playing him.
Predicted RR Playing XI vs LSG
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag (c), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shimron Hetmyer✈️, Shubham Dubey, Wanindu Hasaranga✈️Sandeep Sharma, Jofra Archer✈️, Maheesh Theekshana✈️
Impact Subs: Tushar Deshpande, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Kumar Kartikeya, Kunal Singh Rathore, Akash Madhwal
