Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson has been ruled out of the match against Lucknow Super Giants in the ongoing IPL 2025. In the previous match against Delhi Capitals, the keeper-batter injured his ribs and had to leave the field mid-way. After the game, Samson confirmed that he was doing fine but wasn’t fit to return to batting.
Since then, he has undergone scans, and head coach Rahul Dravid noted that a decision on his availability against LSG will be made on the match day. During the toss, stand-in captain Riyan Parag confirmed that Samson is yet to gain full fitness. In his absence, Vaibhav Suryavanshi will be opening the batting alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal. He is named in the Impact Player list. At 14 years at 23 days, he is set to become the youngest cricketer to debut in the IPL.
"We were looking to bowl, it is a little bit warm under lights, should be better than the last time. Vaibhav the youngster comes in. It's been kinda tricky, we've been doing small bits right but we haven't been able to put a collective performance together, we've been having honest chats as a team. We love playing here, we know the conditions well, hope we can put that to good use," Parag said after the toss.
Lucknow, on the other hand, made one change to their playing XI. Akash Deep, who was struggling to find rhythm, has been replaced by Prince Yadav. On the other hand, Mayank Yadav has been named in the Impact Player list and it's very likely that the ace pacer will be in action at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium against Rajasthan.
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (wk/c), David Miller, Abdul Samad, Ravi Bishnoi, Shardul Thakur, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Avesh Khan
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubham Dubey, Riyan Parag (c), Nitish Rana, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande