Rajasthan Royals rope in SA20 sensation as Nitish Rana's replacement for IPL 2025

South Africa’s uncapped left-handed opening batter and wicketkeeper Lhuan-dre Pretorius is all set to light up the ongoing IPL 2025. Nitish Rana has been ruled out of the remainder of the tournament due to an injury, forcing the Rajasthan Royals to bring in a replacement at the last minute.

Rajasthan Royals brought in Nitish Rana’s replacement from its sister franchise, Paarl Royals of SA20, for the remaining games of the ongoing IPL 2025. Lhuan-dre Pretorius had made his SA20 debut for the Paarl Royals earlier this year and impressed everyone by scoring a career-best 97 on his debut.

Lhuan-dre Pretorius set to join Rajasthan Royals as Nitish Rana’s replacement in IPL 2025

The Indian Premier League confirmed this development on Wednesday, May 8. The IPL stated in a media release, “Rajasthan Royals (RR) have named Lhuan-dre Pretorius as a replacement for Nitish Rana, who has been ruled out of the remainder of TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 due to injury. South Africa's Lhuan-dre Pretorius has played 33 T20s and scored 911 runs with a highest score of 97. He will join RR for his base price of INR 30 lakh.”

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Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals has also confirmed that Nitish Rana has been ruled out of the remainder of the season. The franchise said that Rana is currently healing from a calf injury, due to which he could not take part in the remaining two games in the ongoing IPL 2025.

Taking to their social media handles, the Royals announced that they have signed Lhuan-dre Pretorius as Rana’s replacement for the remainder of the tournament.

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Nitish Rana healing from a calf injury, confirms RR

RR posted on X: “🇿🇦 Fearless. Power-packed. Royal! You’ve seen him in Pink — and you’ll see him soon in IPL 2025. 🔥 Lhuan-dre Pretorius steps in for Nitish Rana, who’s healing from a calf injury. Speedy recovery, Nitish bhai! 💗”

🇿🇦 Fearless. Power-packed. Royal!

You’ve seen him in Pink — and you’ll see him soon in IPL 2025. 🔥

Lhuan dre Pretorius steps in for Nitish Rana, who’s healing from a calf injury. Speedy recovery, Nitish bhai! 💗 pic.twitter.com/B2JzFUlKZo

— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) May 8, 2025

Notably, Rana has played 11 matches for the RR in the IPL 2025 and scored 217 runs with the highest score of 81 at an average of 21.70 and a strike rate of 161.94. The ninth-ranked Royals had a forgetful season, winning only three of their 12 games so far in the ongoing tournament.

Now, the RR have only two games remaining in this season—the second-to-last against the Chennai Super Kings on May 12 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai and the last game of this season against the Punjab Kings on May 16 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.

Who is Lhuan-dre Pretorius?

Meanwhile, Lhuan-dre Pretorius began his cricket journey during his high school days. He quickly made a name for himself by becoming South Africa’s top run-scorer at the 2023 Under-19 World Cup. And then in the 2023-24 season, the left-handed batter finished as the sixth-highest run-scorer in the CSA (Cricket South Africa) T20 Knockout Challenge.

He made his debut in CSA Division Two in 2023, and in the next year, he was handed T20 and first-class debuts with the Titans. Pretorius has so far played five first-class games and scored 436 runs, with the top score being 120, at an amazing average of 72.66 and strike rate of 62.37.

The South Africa wicketkeeper also has 577 runs in 14 List-A games with the highest score of 120 at an average of 44.38 and a strike rate of 110.96. Pretorius has so far amassed 911 runs in 33 T20s at an average of 27.60 and a strike rate of 147. In his debut season, Pretorius scored 397 runs in 12 games for Paarl Royals in the SA20 2025 at an impressive strike rate of around 167.

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