Rajasthan Royals suffer another big blow, as the pacer Sandeep Sharma is ruled out of the IPL 2025

Rajasthan Royals pacer, Sandeep Sharma has been ruled out of the remainder IPL 2025 after sustaining a finger fracture. Sandeep sustained a finger injury in the teams’ last match against Gujarat Titans but despite the injury, the bowler showed resilience and continued to bowl against GT and picked the wicket of Washington Sundar.

Praising the efforts of Sandeep, a statement from RR read “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 franchise extend their best wishes for his full and swift recovery. The team management is currently in the process of finalizing a suitable replacement, with an official announcement expected soon,” Rajasthan Royals said in a statement.

Akash Madhwal replaces Sandeep Sharma against MI

The Royals management is actively working on finalising his replacement, and till one is finalised, Akash Madhwal replaced him against the Mumbai Indians clash on Thursday. Madhwal was part of the Mumbai Indians squad in both 2023 and 2024. One of his most memorable moments came in the IPL 2023 eliminator, where he stunned everyone by picking up 5 wickets for just 5 runs against Lucknow Super Giants. Akash finally got his IPL 2025 debut in the playing XI and will be slightly under pressure to fill in the shoes of Sandeep.

This is the temporary replacement for today’s match and official replacement is yet to be named. An official announcement will be made later when the team finalizes a replacement for the player.

RR vs MI Playing XI

Rajasthan Royals playing XI: Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag (c), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Impact options: Shubham Dubey, Tushar Deshpande, Kunal Rathore, Yudhvir Charak, Kwena Maphaka

Mumbai Indians playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (WK), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Naman Dhir, Corbin Bosch, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah

Impact options: Robin Minz, Raj Bawa, Karn Sharma, Reece Topley, Satyanarayana Raju