IPL 2025: Rajasthan Royals rope in Lhuan-dre Pretorius as replacement for injured Nitish Rana

Rajasthan Royals have roped in South African batter Lhuan-dre Pretorius as a replacement for injured Nitish Rana in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025). In an announcement made on Thursday (May 8), Pretorius will come into the side after Nitish Rana picked up a calf injury. Interestingly, with two more matches remaining and no Playoffs, Pretorius’ signing comes too little, too late for the 2008 IPL champions.

Pretorius, a promising young top-order batter, has featured in 33 T20 matches, scoring 911 runs in 33 T20s, including a highest score of 97. He joins the Royals at his base price of INR 30 Lakh ($35,000) and will be joining the squad ahead of the side’s IPL 2025 contest against fellow strugglers Chennai Super Kings on Monday (May 12).

So far, the IPL 2025 campaign has been frustrating, with Rajasthan winning just three of the 12 matches and sitting above bottom-placed CSK on Net Run Rate. However, a defeat on Monday in the head-to-head contest against CSK could see them condemned to the bottom spot. The three wins so far have come against Punjab Kings, Gujarat Titans and CSK in the reverse fixture.

Rajasthan will drop the curtains on their IPL 2025 campaign against Punjab Kings at their traditional home in Punjab at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. Despite the poor season, RR have few notable positives, including Vaibhav Suryavanshi. The 14-year-old from Bihar became the youngest player to score an IPL hundred when he did so during the Gujarat Titans match.

The hundred was also the fastest by an Indian in the competition’s history, having reached the feat on 35 balls.

On the contrary, RR have also missed the services of Sanju Samson, who has also been ruled out of the season. Riyan Parag is currently captaining the side and did so during the first three matches of the season, when Samson was playing as an impact player.