Sanju Samson will return as the wicketkeeper and captain of Rajasthan Royals in their tie against Punjab Kings on Saturday. The Kerala star will take over the reigns from stand-in skipper Riyan Parag after receiving a green signal from the Centre of Excellence (CoE) to resume his duties behind the stumps. RR opened their account in IPL 2025 after defeating CSK in Guwahati. Now, they will be up against a formidable PBKS.
RR predicted playing XI vs PBKS
| Position | Player | Role |
| 1. | Sanju Samson (C & WK) | Batter |
| 2. | Yashasvi Jaiswal | Batter |
| 3. | Nitish Rana | Batter |
| 4. | Riyan Parag | Batter |
| 5. | Dhruv Jurel | Batter |
| 6. | Shimron Hetmeyer ✈️ | Batter |
| 7. | Wanindu Hasaranga ✈️ | All-rounder |
| 8. | Maheesha Theekshana ✈️ | All-rounder |
| 9. | Jofra Archer ✈️ | Bowler |
| 10. | Sandeep Sharma | Bowler |
| 11. | Tushar Deshpande | Bowler |
Focus on Jaiswal, Samson combo
Both Jaiswal and Samson have failed to fire at the top-order for RR so far in IPL 2025. The southpaw has registered scores of 1, 29 and 4 in three matches. Samson, who was playing just as a pure batter, has managed to score just one half-century. His last three knocks were 66, 13 and 20. Now that he has been declared fully fit, the opening combo will be expected to start firing, especially against PBKS.
Nitish Rana aced his role at number 3 in the game against CSK with a fiery knock. He is expected to continue batting there. Parag will have to pull up his socks, having only scored 4, 25 and 37 so far. Jurel has been consistent, so there should be no worries about him.
Sandeep, Archer to spearhead bowling attack
Sandeep Sharma and Jofra Archer will spearhead RR’s bowling attack. They will be Samson’s go-to bowlers for wickets. Not to forget, there is Tushar Deshpande as well.
But spinners Theekshana and Hasaranga will play a crucial role. For the record, spinners had an economy rate of 7.08 here in IPL 2024 in Mullanpur, the lowest among the 13 venues last year.
RR squad for IPL 2025
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, Shubham Dubey, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Kunal Singh Rathore, Kumar Kartikeya, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Kwena Maphaka, Ashok Sharma, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Akash Madhwal
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