Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
In the second match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, last season’s runners-up, SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) are hosting Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday, March 23. While the Orange Army once again took the field with Pat Cummins leading the side, RR saw Riyan Parag walk out at the toss despite Sanju Samson’s presence.
With this Parag became the youngest captain in IPL 2025. However, it wasn’t a surprise as the inaugural champions had earlier confirmed that their regular skipper, Sanju Samson will play the first three matches as pure batter and will take the field as an impact player.
Why is Riyan Parag captaining RR in IPL 2025 clash against SRH?
The franchise shared the short clip 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!” This comes after Sanju Samson is yet to receive clearance from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s Centre of Excellence after he suffered a finger injury during India’s T20I series against England earlier this year.
For the unversed, RR stand-in skipper Riyan Parag won the toss and elected to field first. While the Royals went with Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theeshana and Fazalhaq Farooqi as their four overseas, SRH on the other hand named only three overseas in the XI.
SRH vs RR IPL 2025 Playing XI
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubham Dubey, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag(c), Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Impact Subs: Sanju Samson, Kunal Singh Rathore, Akash Madhwal, Kumar Kartikeya, Kwena Maphaka
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins(c), Simarjeet Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami
Impact Subs: Sachin Baby, Jaydev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari, Adam Zampa, Wiaan Mulder
