Fazalhaq Farooqi has been left out of the Indian Premier League’s (IPL 2025) opening match at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, where the hosts Rajasthan Royals (RR) take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Sunday, April 13.
Rajasthan enters the match fresh off a humiliating 58-run loss to Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad earlier this week. At home, the Delhi Capitals defeated RCB by a margin of six wickets. The goal for both sides on Sunday is to resume their winning ways.
Toss Update
Rajat Patidar, who came out wearing RCB’s iconic green jersey which aims to raise awareness to plant more trees, won the toss and opted to field first. He said that the surface looks hard and bowling first would allow them to understand how it’s behaving. Meanwhile, RR skipper Sanju Samson was honest as ever as he said that he would have also bowled first had he won the toss. The wicketkeeper-batter acknowledged that his team has had a topsy-turvy start to the season but he doesn’t want doubts to creep into the dressing room.
Wanindu Hasaranga comes in for Fazalhaq Farooqi; Same XI for RCB
Wanindu Hasaranga missed RR’s last game against Gujarat due to personal reasons. However, the Sri Lankan all-rounder is back in the lineup in place of Fazalhaq Farooqi, who replaced him in the last IPL 2025 game. Meanwhile, RCB opted to stick with the same side.
RR vs RCB, Match 28 – What did the captains say?
Rajat Patidar (Royal Challengers Bengaluru)
We will bowl first. Surface looks pretty hard and good. We will know how the pitch behaves. This (green jersey) is to raise awareness to plant more trees. Same team for us.
Sanju Samson (Rajasthan Royals)
Actually we also wanted to bowl first. Normally it gets better to bat is the local information here. We know the conditions and if we respect the opposition and play to potential I think we will be fine. Ups and downs keep happening, can’t allow doubts to enter into the dressing room. Hasa is back. Hasaranga will be replacing our Farooqi ji (smiles).
RR vs RCB, Match 28 – Playing XIs
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (WK & C), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande.
Impact Substitutes: Kunal Singh Rathore, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Kumar Kartikeya, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (C), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, and Yash Dayal.
Impact Substitutes: Devdutt Padikkal, Rasikh Dar Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, and Swapnil Singh.
India
