MS Dhoni (L) and Sanju Samson© X (Twitter)

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).

Wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, who did not find a place in India’s Champions Trophy squad, has undergone a finger surgery. However, the player is likely to be fit in time for the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Samson picked up the injury during the fifth and final ODI against England earlier this month, as pacer Jofra Archer‘s delivery struck him on his right index finger. After his dismissal, Samson was replaced by Dhruv Jurel in the second innings.

According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, Samson is expected to take a month to recover after the surgery and will be fit in time to take part in IPL 2025.

“It is understood that Samson will take around a month to recover after his surgery took place on Tuesday. That gives him enough time for be ready for the IPL, which will start in the March 21-22-23 weekend,” the report said.

The injury had also ruled Samson out of Kerala’s Ranji Trophy quarterfinal tie against Jammu and Kashmir.

The play, however, had a series to forget against England as he managed a mere 51 runs in the five-match contest that India won 4-1. 

Former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin and Kris Srikkanth were critical of Samson after his flop show against England.

“…if Sanju keeps getting dismissed like this, as a batter, the mind will be playing tricks,” Ashwin said.

“(It will force you to think) the bowler is bowling a certain way and I am getting dismissed like this, is the bowler bowling well or do I have a shortcoming? Will I be able to adapt? Once so many questions arises, then it becomes difficult,” he explained.

“Sanju Samson seems to have missed the bus. For the fifth time, getting out in the same manner. He has played a similar shot. I think he is trying to show his ego. He is trying to say, ‘No, no, I will play this shot.’ Is he going on an ego trip or struggling? I am not sure,” Srikkanth was quoted as saying in a report by Inside Sport.

Samson will now be seen in action during IPL 2025, which is expected to get underway on March 23, as per BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla.

Shukla, who attended the Special General Meeting (SGM) in Mumbai, revealed the date of IPL 2025 while speaking to reporters and said, “IPL is going to start from March 23.”

However, the BCCI is yet to make an official statement regarding the same.

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar backed wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson to be allowed “long patch of failures” because of the impact he can make when he is in form. Samson’s inconsistent run in T20Is continues as after three centuries in five innings across five innings against Bangladesh and South Africa, he has been troubled by the high-quality pace of Jofra Archer, who has dismissed him thrice in this ongoing series. He has scored just 35 runs in four innings at an average of 8.75, with best score of 26.

Speaking in a video by ESPNCricinfo, Manjrekar said that when looking at T20I batting talent, it is important to look at how much impact they can make when they are playing well. He also said that “long patch of failures” are a part of T20I cricket.

“And you see with Sanju Samson, when he plays well, he gets an incredible hundred and puts your team in a winning position. So, such people are allowed failures and maybe a long patch of failures as well because that is the nature of these as a T20 cricketer, where you cannot play yourself, where you have to keep taking those risks that they take, and hopefully there is one innings that just propels him back into form.”

“So, with Samson, I think you should just make sure that he gets as many innings as possible purely because when he gets into form and plays well, he makes it all worth it. If that was another guy who was failing in this fashion and when he got into form just got you 40 or 50, then maybe you would offer him a shorter rope. But I will have a lot of patience with this current version of Sanju Samson,” he added.

The fifth and final T20I of the series will take place at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. India has won the series 2-1.

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

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

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.

Sanju Samson, from behind the stumps, was an energetic presence for India against England in the third T20I in Rajkot on Tuesday.  He even convinced India captain Suryakumar Yadav in taking a DRS which turned out to be the right call. On the final ball of the 10th over, Buttler went for a reverse sweep against Varun Chakravarthy. The ball was positioned very close to the gloves and Samson grabbed it. The wicketkeeper started appealing and celebrating. He was the only Indian player who looked animated. The on-field umpire gave him not out. But Samson kept persisting and SKY relented after a while. Even Chakravarthy, the bowler, was not as convinced as Samson.

But ultimately, Samson’s decision was right.

#VarunChakaravarthy breaks the partnership!

A successful review by #TeamIndia and #JosButtler has to walk back!

Start watching FREE on Disney+ Hotstar: https://t.co/cA9YJDYNul#INDvENGOnJioStar 3rd T20I LIVE NOW on Disney+ Hotstar & Star Sports! | #KhelAasmani pic.twitter.com/8AUu2FMPOU

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) January 28, 2025

Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami made a solid comeback to international cricket after 14 months but it was Varun Chakravarthy’s bowling effort that stood out as his five-wicket haul helped India limit England to 171/9 in the third T20 here on Tuesday.

England lost their way after a whirlwind fifty from Ben Duckett (51 off 28) as the in-form Chakravarthy ran through the opposition batting on a flat track.

From 83 for one, England slipped to 127 for eight before Liam Livingstone (43 off 24) went on a six-hitting spree to end the innings on a high.

Chakravarthy completed his second five-wicket haul in T20s when he bowled Jofra Archer with a googly.

While Ravi Bishnoi (4/46 in 4 overs) and Washington Sundar (0/15 in 1) proved expensive, Chakravarthy (5/24 in four) and Axar Patel (1/19 in 3) kept things tight from their end.

After being put in to bat, England made a promising start by coasting to 52/1.

England have struggled against the Indian spinners in the series but Duckett overcame that challenge with some audacious strokeplay on way to his second T20 fifty. He danced down the track, employed the scoop and reverse hits to unsettle the opposition attack.

He was the aggressor in his 76-run stand with skipper Jos Buttler (24 off 22) but the duo fell in quick succession to lose the momentum in the middle overs. Among the shots Duckett pulled off included a scoop over the keeper’s head off Shami’s second over.

India vs England LIVE Streaming, 3rd T20I: When And Where To Watch© BCCI

File photo of Sanju Samson© AFP