‘Right decision by the management’ – Veteran player backs Rajasthan Royals’ decision to hand over captaincy to Riyan Parag early in the season

Rajasthan Royals (RR) head into their game against Delhi Capitals (DC) needing a win to keep their Indian Premier League (IPL) playoff chances alive. Sanju Samson and his side have lost their last two games of the season to Gujarat and Bengaluru. In the first three games of the season, Riyan Parag was handed the captaincy with Samson playing as a pure batter. 

Nitish Rana, who spent a few seasons with Kolkata Knight Riders, backed the team management’s decision to hand over the captaincy to Riyan Parag. Times now quoted the left-handed batter as saying, “When I was made captain of KKR, I had been with the team for 6-7 years. That helped a lot because I understood the team culture and environment. Now, with RR, I think Riyan knows the team's setup better than me. And I think it was absolutely the right decision by the management."

Rana, while speaking about his captaincy aspiration, said, “If they had asked me, of course, I would've happily accepted the captaincy. But what matters most is what's right for the team. And I think they made the correct call.” The veteran batter had led KKR in the 2023 season when Shreyas Iyer was ruled out due to injury. 

Rajasthan Royals opt to bowl first in key encounter 

Sanju Samson won the toss and chose to bowl first in the 32nd game of the IPL 2025 season. Both teams came into the game with the same side that had played their respective last encounter. RR had lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the last match by nine wickets at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. 

Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel had said that he would have bowled first despite losing the last game. DC had lost to the Mumbai Indians by 12 runs to end their unbeaten start to the season. Chasing 206 to win, Delhi at one stage were coasting with Karun Nair batting well. The introduction of Karn Sharma changed the game and three run-outs in three balls ended Delhi’s hopes of a fifth successive win. 

Faf du Plessis is missing the game yet again after missing the game against MI due to injury. Karun Nair will be the man in focus as he looks to continue his amazing batting form against his former side. Nair, who had played in the IPL after over 1000 days, scored a career-best 89 against MI before falling to Mitchell Santner.