Rajasthan Royals won the toss and have opted to bowl in their IPL 2025 opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Stand-in RR skipper Riyan Parag has confirmed that Sanju Samson will be playing as an impact player in the match. For the unversed, Samson is not completely fit from his finger injury and hence will play as a pure batter for the first three matches.
RR’s playing XI vs SRH ft. Samson as impact sub
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubham Dubey, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag(c), Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi
“The impact rule helps with Sanju. The other three overseas will be Theekshana, Jofra and Farooqi,” Parag said after winning the toss.
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 23, 2025
𝐓𝐨𝐬𝐬
Rajasthan Royals have won the toss and elected to bowl first against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.#TATAIPL | #SRHvRR | @SunRisers | @rajasthanroyals pic.twitter.com/No3UrY6FA4
Parag to lead RR in initial IPL 2025 matches
In a video on social media platform X, Samson announced Parag as his successor for RR’s first three IPL games. However, Sanju will still be a part of the playing XI and will function as a pure batter. Parag is no stranger to captaincy, having led Assam in domestic tournaments.
“I think I’m not completely fit for the next three games. So I think, there are lot of leaders in this group. I think from last few years, there have been some great people who have taken care of this environment. But for the next three games, Riyan will be leading the team,” Samson said.
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) March 20, 2025
Update: Sanju will be playing our first three games as a batter, with Riyan stepping up to lead the boys in these matches!
pic.twitter.com/FyHTmBp1F5
