IPL 2025: Rajasthan Royals hand debut to Suryavanshi, 14, as LSG elect to bat first

Jaipur, April 19 (IANS) Vaibhav Suryavanshi, at 14 years and 23 days, has become the youngest player to make his IPL debut, for Rajasthan Royals (RR), as Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) won the toss and elected to bat first in Match 36 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Saturday.

Rajasthan Royals will be led by Riyan Parag, who captained them in the first three games of IPL 2025 when regular skipper Sanju Samson was recovering from a finger injury, as the latter is out due to an abdominal strain sustained during the game against Delhi Capitals earlier this week and retired hurt on 31 off 19 balls, as the side eventually lost the game in a Super Over.

In the IPL 2025 mega auction held last year, Suryavanshi became the youngest to earn an IPL deal when RR signed him for INR 1.1 crore. Apart from being the youngest player to feature in the Ranji Trophy, Suryavanshi has a 58-ball century against his name, coming in a four-day game for India Under-19 against Australia Under-19 in Chennai.

He also amassed 176 runs at an average of 44 when India reached the final of the 2024 Under-19 Asia Cup. Though Suryavanshi is on the RR' Impact Substitutes' list, he is expected to come in when their batting innings commences, as Parag mentioned the change in playing eleven during the toss.

“We were looking to bowl, it is a little bit warm under lights, should be better than the last time. It's been kinda tricky, we've been doing small bits right, but we haven't been able to put a collective performance together, we've been having honest chats as a team. We love playing here, we know the conditions well, hope we can put that to good use,” said Parag.

LSG skipper Rishabh Pant said pacer Prince Yadav comes in for fellow fast-bowler Akash Deep. Tearaway pacer Mayank Yadav, who joined the team after completing his rehab for a back injury at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, has been named in the Impact Substitutes' list.

“We're going to bat first, the wicket is looking dry, so we want to take advantage. No dew, so why not bat first? The general thought process was to take the positives. We are lacking in small areas, want to improve on those and take the game forward.”

“Was good to get back into form and contribute (through a fifty against CSK in Lucknow). I was not worried about it, knew it was around the corner. Sometimes it takes time, and I got time in the last game,” he said. While LSG are in fifth place in the points table, RR find themselves in eighth spot.

Playing XIs:

Lucknow Super Giants: Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), David Miller, Abdul Samad, Ravi Bishnoi, Shardul Thakur, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Singh Rathi, and Avesh Khan

Impact Substitutes: Mayank Yadav, Ayush Badoni, Himmat Singh, Shahbaz Ahmed, and Matthew Breetzke

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubham Dubey, Riyan Parag (capt), Nitish Rana, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Sandeep Sharma, and Tushar Deshpande

Impact Substitutes: Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yudhvir Singh, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, and Kunal Singh Rathore

--IANS

nr/bsk/