IPL 2025: Rajasthan Royals win toss, opt to field against Chennai Super Kings

NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain Sanju Samson won the toss and decided to bowl against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their final fixture of the 18th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

The clash between the Super Kings and the Royals is a dead rubber in the race to the playoffs. Both sides were eliminated in the group stage following their shambolic run in IPL 2025, during which they churned out three wins each.

CSK kept faith in its tried-and-tested formula of experience, but this time, it backfired. On the other hand, Rajasthan invested its faith in youngsters after Jos Buttler’s departure but failed to find the elusive patch of consistency.

Toss @rajasthanroyals won the toss and elected to field against @ChennaiIPL

Updates https://t.co/hKuQlLxjIZ #TATAIPL | #CSKvRR pic.twitter.com/TW5zGgi6SA

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 20, 2025

After winning the toss, Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson confirmed that they have made a couple of changes and said, “We will bowl first. Looking at the last game against Delhi Capitals, there was something in it. There’s no hiding in this game. We’ve got to do it today. Everyone has to be a match-winner. They have to think like that. We need to be smarter and braver. We have a couple of changes. Yudhvir comes in.”

Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni said during the time of the toss, “We want to express ourselves in our batting department. Need to figure out which individual will do well in which slot next year. Need to work on our bowling. Once we were out of the tournament, we wanted to find the answers for the next year. We need to look into the combination and find a couple of players we can pick in the auction. We are on a roll in the batting department, and we want to continue doing that. We struggled at the start of the season. When you are constantly under pressure, that doesn’t work. You don’t need to play all kinds of shots, you need to be selective.”

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Sanju Samson (w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Kwena Maphaka, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Madhwal

RR Impact Subs: Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Kumar Kartikeya, Shubham Dubey, Ashok Sharma, Kunal Singh Rathore

Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Ayush Mhatre, Devon Conway, Urvil Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Dewald Brevis, Shivam Dube, MS Dhoni (w/c), Anshul Kamboj, Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Khaleel Ahmed

CSK Impact Subs: Matheesha Pathirana, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ramakrishna Ghosh. (ANI)