Rajasthan Royals (RR) batter Nitish Rana has been ruled out of the remainder of IPL 2025 due to a niggle. The southpaw missed RR's previous match against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
The Royals have now roped in 19-year-old South African Lhuan-dre Pretorius to replace the senior batter in the squad. The injury ends his IPL stint, with him scoring 217 runs from 11 matches at a strike rate of 161.94; it included two half-centuries and a high score of 81.
Pretorious will join the team at a price of 30 lakhs. He plays domestically for the Titans in domestic cricket, represents Paarl Royals in SA20. He scored 397 runs from 12 games at a strike-rate of 166.81. Overall, he has played 33 T20s, scoring 911 runs at a strike-rate of 147.17 and an average of 27.60, with six fifties.
Rajasthan Royals Name Injury Replacements For Nitish Rana, Sandeep Sharma
Rajasthan Royals have already been eliminated from the tournament with nine losses from 12 matches. They have won just three games, and their last win was against the Gujarat Titans when Vaibhav Suryavanshi scored a brilliant hundred. Sanju Samson's injury has also given the team a major jolt. RR's head coach came up with an update on Samson before their match against MI, which they lost by 100 runs.
“Sanju is recovering well, but side strains can be tricky. We don’t want to rush him back and risk long-term damage. We’re taking it one day at a time and will decide based on how he responds," Dravid has said.
The franchise has two more games remaining against CSK (May 12) and PBKS (May 16). RR stand-in skipper Riyan Parag played a blinder of a knock against KKR but could not take his side to a win. The side has also lacked batting and bowling depth this season, having released the likes of Jos Buttler, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Trent Boult. The Royals are currently placed ninth on the IPL 2025 points table.
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