CRICKET POLL

Rajasthan Royals have picked the South African duo of Lhuan-dre Pretorius and Nandre Burger as replacements for Nitish Rana and Sandeep Sharma respectively, who have been ruled out due to injuries, for the remainder of IPL 2025.

Rana had missed RR's last fixture against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens with a niggle. His season wraps up at 217 runs from 11 matches at a strike-rate of 161.94; it included two half-centuries with a high score of 81.

Lhuan-dre Pretorius, a left-handed uncapped 'keeper-batter from South Africa, will join RR at his base price of INR 30 lakh. Pretorius, who plays for Titans in domestic cricket, represents Paarl Royals in SA20 and was the highest run-getter in the recent edition, compiling 397 runs from 12 games at a strike-rate of 166.81. Overall, he's played 33 T20s, scoring 911 runs at a strike-rate of 147.17 and an average of 27.60, with six fifties.

Meanwhile, Sandeep, who played 10 matches for Royals this season and picked up nine wickets, sustained a finger injury. Burger, who has been picked for INR 3.5 Crore, played six games for Royals last season.

Royals are out of playoffs contention this season but still have two matches to go: against CSK in Chennai and against PBKS at home in Jaipur.