Rajasthan Royals Schedule IPL 2025: Inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Rajasthan Royals will kick off their IPL 2025 campaign against 2024 runners-up Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), in an away game. RR started off well in IPL 2024, but fell away in the second half of the season, ultimately losing to SRH in the Qualifier 2. RR retained captain Sanju Samson, alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag and Sandeep Sharma ahead of the mega auction. Their costliest purchase came in the form of English pacer Jofra Archer. The team also welcomed Rahul Dravid as their head coach ahead of IPL 2025.

Here is Rajasthan Royals’ IPL 2025 schedule in full:

25 March: GT vs PBKS – Ahmedabad – 7:30 PM IST

1 April: LSG vs PBKS – Lucknow – 7:30 PM IST

5 April: PBKS vs RR – New Chandigarh – 7:30 PM IST

8 April: PBKS vs CSK – New Chandigarh – 7:30 PM IST

12 April: SRH vs PBKS – Hyderabad – 7:30 PM IST

15 April: PBKS vs KKR – New Chandigarh – 7:30 PM IST

18 April: RCB vs PBKS – Bengaluru – 7:30 PM IST

20 April: PBKS vs RCB – New Chandigarh – 3:30 PM IST

26 April: KKR vs PBKS – Kolkata – 7:30 PM IST

30 April: CSK vs PBKS – Chennai – 7:30 PM IST

4 May: PBKS vs LSG – Dharamshala – 7:30 PM IST

8 May: PBKS vs DC – Dharamshala – 7:30 PM IST

11 May: PBKS vs MI – Dharamshala – 3:30 PM IST

16 May: RR vs PBKS – Jaipur – 7:30 PM IST

RR IPL 2025 Squad: Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Sandeep Sharma, Jofra Archer (Rs. 12.50 crore), Maheesh Theekshana (Rs. 4.4 crore), Wanindu Hasaranga (Rs. 5.25 crore), Akash Madhwal (Rs. 1.20 crore), Kumar Kartikeya (Rs. 30 lakh), Nitish Rana (Rs. 4.20 crore), Tushar Deshpande (Rs. 6.50 crore), Shubham Dubey (Rs. 80 lakh), Yudhvir Singh (Rs. 35 lakh), Fazalhaq Farooqi (Rs. 2 crore), Vaibhav Suryavanshi (Rs. 1.10 crore), Kwena Maphaka (Rs. 1.50 crore), Kunal Rathore (Rs. 30 lakh), Ashok Sharma (Rs. 30 lakh).

Star batter Rinku Singh is set to make his return to India’s playing XI for the crucial 4th T20I against England in Cuttack on Friday. After featuring in the series-opener in Kolkata, Rinku sat out the last two games in Chennai and Rajkot, respectively, owing to back spasms. However, on the eve of the game in Cuttack, India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate confirmed that Rinku will be available for selection, having looked in good rhythm while batting in the nets on a day earlier.

“Rinku is fit. He played the first game, hurt himself and missed the next two. But I would imagine Rinku comes back in as soon as he’s proper fit. He batted the other night and I think he’ll be ready to go tomorrow,” Ten Doeschate said during a pre-match press conference on Thursday.

Rinku’s likely inclusion would be a major boost for the Indian team as it looks to wrap up the series on Friday ahead of the fifth and final game in Mumbai on Sunday.

If the team management does decide to ship Rinku into the playing XI, young wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel is likely to make the way. Unlike Jurel, Rinku is likely to bat higher up the order and will provide more stability in the middle-order.

It is highly unlikely that India will make any other change. Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma will continue to open, while Tilak Varma‘s match-winning knock in Chennai has earned him a longer rope in the team.

Mohammed Shami needs a lot of bowling in match situations and the Rajkot game was a decent restart to his international career without being spectacular. For continuity, the management is likely to persist with the veteran for this game at least. 

India’s Likely XI For 4th T20I vs England:

Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami and Varun Chakravarthy

Sanju Samson’s technical weaknesses against express pace along with Rinku Singh’s dip in form and fitness issues will be a concern for India when they take on a resurgent England in the fourth T20 International on Friday. Having fluffed their chances in the third T20I in Rajkot, the penultimate game of the five-match series gives the hosts another opportunity to seal the series going into the final game in Mumbai on February 2. Suryakumar Yadav’s men won the first two games in Kolkata and Chennai.

Samson, the maverick keeper-batter from Kerala, whose sympathetic and loyal fan base never fails to remind everyone of the limited chances he has got, started the T20I season with three hundreds against Bangladesh and South Africa prior to the ongoing series.

In the current rubber, he has had scores of 26, 5 and 3 and it is not these numbers that are concerning. In T20 cricket, if one factors in risk, there would always be lot of less profitable days at the office considering the kind of strokes batters play these days.

But in case of Samson, what is of concern is his palpable discomfort against anything bowled above 145 clicks.

Against Bangladesh at home, he faced Taskin Ahmed, Tanzim Hasan Shakib while in South Africa Andile Simelane and Lutho Sipamla were among the bowlers.

These are not exactly intimidating fast bowlers and he rightfully took them to the cleaners. These are bowlers who fire in between 130 to 140 clicks and can be hit through the line on flat decks.

However, Jofra Archer and Mark Wood are different beasts, bowling between 145 kmph to 155 kmph and that pace is creating problems for Samson.

During all three games, the Kerala batter couldn’t even get his bat down as deliveries would thud into Phil Salt’s gloves.

The hard lengths and steep bounce are creating a problem and even on batting shirt-fronts, it is not easy to hit through the line if one doesn’t have proper technique or doesn’t regularly face this quality of fast bowling.

Samson is one of head coach Gautam Gambhir’s favourites and it is expected that he would be persisted with going into next year’s T20 World Cup.

But his technical issues need to be sorted out at the earliest by Gambhir, new batting coach Sitanshu Kotak and the himself.

Dhruv Jurel looks a misfit

Rinku Singh’s back spasms forced the team management to try Dhruv Jurel in the No.7 position but he has looked out of place in this particular format unlike Test cricket.

Rinku was rested for the first two games but assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate declared the batter fit for Friday’s contest in the pre-match press conference.

But even Rinku, after a glorious start to his T20I career, has gone off the rails.

When Gambhir became Kolkata Knikght Riders mentor, Rinku got to play a total of 70 odd balls in the 2024 IPL. As a result, he couldn’t make it to the T20 World Cup as Shivam Dube, with his bowling ability, was considered better in the Americas.

The Indian middle order hasn’t exactly played England spinner Adil Rashid well so far and with Dube back in the mix, will Gambhir take a chance with him? Looks unlikely as given the pace of England speedsters even the burly Mumbaikar would be ill at ease.

The third option is Ramandeep Singh, who also looks exciting as a finisher and is a better seamer than Dube. But even he is untested against quality pace attack.

Will Arshdeep be back in order to seal the series

Mohammed Shami needs a lot of bowling in match situations and the Rajkot game was a decent restart to his international career without being spectacular.

While a bilateral series win counts for little, Gambhir wouldn’t like the ignominy of being the first coach under whom India lost a home T20I series against England.

Hence, it would be interesting if Arshdeep Singh, India’s best T20I bowler in absence of Jasprit Bumrah is in line to come back and give some breakthroughs in the Powerplay overs.

Teams (from): India: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana.

England: Jos Buttler (captain), Phil Salt (wk), Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jamie Smith (wk), Adil Rashid, Brydon Carse, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Jacob Bethell, Saqib Mahmood.

Match Starts at 7 pm IST.

Former batter Ambati Rayudu has criticised all-rounder Hardik Pandya for not backing youngster Dhruv Jurel during India’s loss to England in the third T20I on Tuesday. For the unversed, Hardik refused to take a single on final ball of the 18th over after Jurel hit Jofra Archer‘s delivery to deep square leg. While Rayudu praised Hardik for his fighting knock, he felt the veteran all-rounder could’ve show more faith in Jurel. Hardik top-scored for with a 35-ball 40, but couldn’t prevent India from suffering a 26-run loss in Rajkot.

“It was a good performance because batting wasn’t that easy and wickets were falling from the other end. So he paced his innings well. However, when the finishing touch was required to be given, he could have shown a little faith in Dhruv Jurel,” Rayudu said on Star Sports.

“Even if 25 had been required in the last over, Hardik has the ability to hit that. So I feel if he had shown a little more confidence in Dhruv Jurel, the game might have been closer. However, the way he paced his innings was very heartening,” he added.

Recapping the third T20I of the five-match series, India skipper Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and elected to bowl first in the encounter.

Opener Ben Duckett made a vital half-century before he was caught by Abhishek Sharma off the bowling of Hardik Pandya, having put on a good stand with Buttler to put England on a firm footing at 83/2.

The England middle order, however, was unable to negotiate with Varun Charkravarthy, who sliced through them, taking 5-24. That left England on 127/8, requiring Liam Livingstone to make a valiant 43 from 24 balls, with solid final-wicket support from Adil Rashid and Mark Wood, both of whom made 10.

England finished on 171/9, which looked like it might be slightly under par, but their bowlers flew out of the traps, taking wickets regularly with none of the India top-four making it past 24 runs.

Pandya impressed with the bat, making 40 off 35, and putting on a 38-run partnership with Axar Patel.

But after Buttler caught Pandya off Jamie Overton‘s bowling in the 19th over, there was simply too much for the tail to do, ending the innings 26 runs short.

India lead the five-match series 2-1 heading into the fourth T20I in Pune on Friday, January 31.

(With ANI Inputs)

Representative image.© AFP

India’s successful run in the ongoing T20I series against England came to a sudden halt after they faced a shocking 26-run defeat in the third match. Playing in Rajkot, the hosts restricted England to 171/9 after opting to bowl first. However, in the chase, India kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and could manage only 145/9, falling short of 26 runs. The entire batting lineup of India miserably failed to put up a good show as Hardik Pandya‘s 35-ball-40-run knock became their only saving grace.

As the scoreline of the five-match series now reads 2-1 in the favour of the hosts, former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel slammed Hardik for his slow approach in the match.

“One cannot take 20-25 balls to get set in a T20I. Can’t take 20-25 balls to get set. I understand taking your time but you have to keep rotating the strike. Hardik may have ended up with 40 off 35, but there were a lot of dot balls at the start of his innings,” said Parthiv in the post-match show on Star Sports.

Apart from Parthiv, former England skipper Kevin Pietersen also questioned Team India’s decision of pushing Dhruv Jurel at No.8.

“India didn’t get the batting order right. Dhruv Jurel is an accomplished batter. Having him lower down the order for the left and right combination was not right. I’m a firm believer in your best batters batting up front,” said Pietersen.

“Left and right combination is alright till No.4 but after that you should send your best batters. Jurel is a proper batsman. He could have constructed a big innings,” he added.

Despite being on the losing side, India also had a silver-lining in spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who took a five-wicket haul. Chakravarthy has been a revelation for the T20I side since his return to the set-up last year, having last played for India in 2021 before that.

During the third T20I, Chakravarthy shined with figures of 5/24 in four overs, getting wickets of skipper Jos Buttler, Jamie Smith, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse and Jofra Archer.

KL Rahul‘s presence behind the stumps during the ODI World Cup gave the Indian team the balance but the stylish Karnataka right-hander is unlikely to don the big gloves in white-ball cricket going forward. The national selection committee is expected to meet on January 19, a day after the Vijay Hazare Trophy final, to select the 15-member provisional squad for the Champions Trophy and there will be some debate on two fringe selections – the second keeper’s slot and the wrist spinner in case Kuldeep Yadav fails to get fit in time.

In the case of keeper’s slot, Rishabh Pant is the first choice by a country mile but the second keeper’s slot could be a three-way fight between Dhruv Jurel, Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan. As of now, it looks like Jurel could win the battle.

Samson could lose out as he decided to skip the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Kishan played 27 ODIs to score 933 runs at an average of 42-plus with a double hundred and seven half-centuries to show for his efforts.

But he has fallen a bit out of favour with the current selection committee after skipping domestic cricket last year, which led to him losing his BCCI annual central contract.

Kishan has had a modest Vijay Hazare Trophy where he scored 316 runs in seven games with a single hundred against one of the NE states.

While Kishan was a part of the World Cup squad, young UP and Rajasthan Royals man Jurel has impressed one and all and could certainly walk in as the second keeper.

Jurel has been kept in the T20 squad for England also as Sanju Samson’s understudy. While he has made his T20I debut in Zimbabwe, his selection in the shortest format is significant as the selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, seemed to be keen on keeping him in the white-ball scheme of things.

It is understood that going forward, Pant and Jurel could be one and two for India in Tests and ODIs, while Samson is believed to be only suited for the T20 version where he has scored three centuries in the fag end of 2024.

Bishnoi vs Varun

Kuldeep Yadav is slated to appear for a fitness test and match simulation soon but Tamil Nadu’s Varun Chakravarthy, with 18 wickets in six games, and Gujarat’s Ravi Bishnoi with 14 wickets from six games are both in contention having shown their wares in T20Is for India.

Varun has two five-wicket hauls for Tamil Nadu and has taken his wickets at an economy rate of 4.36. But his ability to bowl on flat decks at the Dubai Stadium is still a point of debate. Besides, his fielding, which is not exactly international standard, is some sort of a liability at the international level.

Bishnoi, who mostly bowls googlies, was very impressive as he went at an economy rate of 3.64 during the VHT campaign. Add to it, he has a very powerful arm, can field anywhere in the deep and is a fantastic catcher.

While Chakravarthy has played under Gautam Gambhir at KKR, Bishnoi has also turned up under India’s head coach during his time at the Lucknow Super Giants. 

File photo of Rishabh Pant

File image of Gautam Gambhir.© BCCI

Rohit Sharma will take a step back to lead from the front as India look for the perfect combination to drive home the advantage against a wounded but famously resilient Australia in the day/night Test starting in Adelaide on Friday. Rohit, returning to the side from a brief paternity break, has taken the tough call of pushing himself down the order to accommodate K L Rahul at the top alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal. Both Rahul and Jaiswal excelled in Perth and had a big part in India’s biggest overseas win.

Shubman Gill has recovered from a thumb injury and will be back in the side alongside Rohit.

The resourceful side would be happy to have the headache of having to shuffle the side than being under-strength, which was the case when they last toured and beat all expectations to come out trumps.

Ahead of the second Test, Rohit said he decided to change his batting position keeping the team’s interests in mind.

“We want result, we want success. Those two guys at the top they batted brilliantly in Perth. I was watching from home. Rahul was brilliant to watch. He deserves that place at this point in time.

“There is no need to change that now, may be things will be different in future. Personally not easy for me (to move down) but for the team it made a lot of sense,” said Rohit adding that he will bat somewhere in the middle.

Playing Australia in Australia tends to bring the best out of the visiting Indian team which defied all expectations to boss the series-opener in Perth, handing Australia their first loss at the Optus stadium.

In their last trip Down Under, India made a comeback for the ages following the 36 all out debacle at the Adelaide Oval but the visitors are placed much better this time around, following the resounding result in the opening Test.

However, the day-night game presents a different challenge for the visiting team batters, who will have to be at their best to negate the extra seam movement generated by the pink ball, especially in the twilight phase.

Australia, who have lost only one out of their 12 day-night Tests at home, will be hurting from the hiding in Perth and having got a 10-day breather, they will be under pressure to make a comeback in the series.

Rohit, whose Test career got a second wind after he started opening in 2019, will bat in the middle order at least for for the time being.

The captain would want to be back among the runs after a lean home series against New Zealand.

His record in Australia is nothing to write home about and he would want to change that on probably his last tour Down Under.

Rohit and Gill will bolster the playing eleven at the expense of Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel.

Having recovered from a thumb injury, Gill looked good in the practice match and will carry the confidence of his past performances in Australia when he walks in to bat the at the hallowed ground.

The biggest positives with the bat in Perth were Virat Kohli regaining his rhythm and Jaiswal’s coming of age hundred in his debut Test in Australia. Both will look to build on those significant gains here.

No changes are expected in the bowling department though traditionally, the Adelaide pitch has aided the spinners, bringing R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja into discussion.

India’s Predicted XI for Adelaide Test vs Australia:

KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Mohammed Siraj.