Sanju Samson To Return As RR Captain: Sanju Samson will take the reins of captaincy for the Rajasthan Royals in the team’s upcoming match in IPL 2025. He will also make a return behind the stumps as the wicketkeeper.
Samson fractured his right index finger during the Indian Cricket Team’s fifth and final T20I against England earlier this year. The finger was injured after it bounced off his RR teammate Jofra Archer. That match saw Sanju get out for 16, but India scored 247 and won by 150 runs.
Sanju Samson To Return As RR Captain
While he might not have been in the squad for the tournament anyway, the injury ruled the 30-year-old out for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. He was recovering from his injury at BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru. However, the CoE has now cleared the wicket/leeper batter for a full-time return to cricket.
“Yes, he has cleared the final fitness tests at the NCA,” a BCCI source told the Times of India.
🚨 CAPTAIN SAMSON IS BACK. 🚨
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) April 2, 2025
– Sanju Samson will be back captaining and wicketkeeping for Rajasthan Royals. (TOI). pic.twitter.com/uNtO3fkIr7
It was earlier believed that Sanju Samson would miss the first few matches of the IPL while recovering from his fractured finger. However, he played the first three matches of the 2025 season of the Indian Premier League for the Rajasthan Royals.
Sanju did not captain the side, despite being the regular RR captain for a few seasons now. Seeing that the Royals will play two out of three of these games in Guwahati and how Riyan Parag captains Assam in domestic cricket, the young Assamese all-rounder was instead named the interim captain for the first three games of the season.
As for wicketkeeping duties, RR were lucky that they retained two Indian players who have kept wickets for the national team. Dhruv Jurel would have always been part of the playing XI, so no compromises had to be made to bring in another keeper in the squad.
Sanju did not miss these games entirely. He came in to open the RR inning alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal. However, as soon as he got out, he was substituted for an Impact Player, which was usually a bowler. This way, he did not have to field and risk exacerbating the injury.
In these first three matches, Sanju played three matches and scored 99 runs at an average of 33 and a strike rate of 154.69. He even scored a beautiful 66 in Rajasthan’s opening game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
As for the Rajasthan Royals, they did not have the best start to the season. They lost their first two matches fairly convincingly against SRH and the Kolkata Knight Riders. They then went on to defeat the Chennai Super Kings in their most recent game. They are currently ninth on the points table with two points in three games and a poor net run rate.
As for Sanju Samson, he will next be seen in action as RR takes on the Punjab Kings on Saturday, April 5, at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur.
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