Rajasthan Royals faced a big setback on Thursday, just before their home match against Mumbai Indians in Jaipur. Their key bowler, Sandeep Sharma, has been ruled out for the rest of the IPL 2025 season due to injury. The team hasn’t named a replacement yet.
Sandeep injured his hand during the last match against the Gujarat Titans, but he still managed to bowl all four overs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. It was only after the game that Rajasthan confirmed he had a fractured finger.
“Sandeep Sharma has been ruled out for the rest of the season after suffering a fracture in his finger. He showed immense bravery to continue bowling with this injury in the last match and everyone at the franchise wishes him a full and speedy recovery,” the Royals’ official statement read.
“The team management is actively working on finalising his replacement, post which an official announcement will be made,” it added.
Rajasthan Bowl First, Make Two Changes
Rajasthan made only two changes for their match against the Mumbai Indians. Akash Madhwal, who used to play for MI, came in for Sandeep. Wanindu Hasaranga had a slight injury, so Kumar Kartikeya took his place.
Considering the impact of dew later in the match, Rajasthan decided to bowl first. They had just broken their losing streak with a win over Gujarat in their last game.
“We might see some dew later. Usually the wicket settles down a little later at night. Want to exploit that. We’ve kept it very simple regardless of winning or losing. Rahul sir has made it clear, we keep it simple whether we go high or low. Three games ago, the message was we take it one game at a time. If we play to our potential, we know how good we can be. Just want to give everyone the freedom to play their game,” Riyan Parag said.
ALSO READ: IPL 2025 Points Table: Team Rankings After MI vs RR Match
