Courtesy: BCCI/IPL
Riyan Parag will become one of the youngest captains in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 history as he is set to lead Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the first three matches of the 2025 season. The 23-year-old will be taking over the responsibility from regular captain Sanju Samson, who is set to feature in the playing XI of RR as a pure batter after not getting the necessary clearance from the Centre of Excellence (CoE) of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to resume wicket-keeping due to injury.
Notably, Sanju Samson suffered a finger injury during India’s fifth T20I in the home series against England over a month ago on the bowling of Jofra Archer. After getting the right index finger surgically repaired, Sanju Samson began rehabilitation recently at the BCCI CoE in Bengaluru, and while he is allowed to resume batting professionally, it isn’t the case as far as wicket-keeping is concerned due to the potential of injury getting aggravated.
Sanju Samson will captain RR after getting clearance from BCCI CoE to assume wicket-keeping duties
With that, Sanju Samson broke the news about giving the responsibility of Rajasthan Royals captaincy for the first three games of the IPL 2025 to his teammate Riyan Parag in front of all the players and support staff. They shared the short clip of the same on their official X account with a caption, “Update: Sanju will be playing our first three games as a batter, with Riyan stepping up to lead the boys in these matches!”
The first assignment as captain for Riyan Parag will come against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2025 season opener for Rajasthan Royals on Sunday afternoon, March 23, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. After that, the all-rounder will make his way to the home city of Guwahati in Assam, where he will be leading RR against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on March 26 and 30 respectively, at the Barsapara Stadium.
