MUMBAI: India’s T20 wicketkeeper-batter and opener Sanju Samson has gone to the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru to seek clearance for keeping wickets and fielding.
The Rajasthan Royals regular captain, who had a fractured right index finger that required surgery, flew from Guwahati to Bengaluru on Monday to seek full clearance from the CoE’s medical team.
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Samson had initially received only a partial clearance to play in the first three matches of the IPL 2025, where he was allowed to bat, but not field or keep wickets. Consequently, the Rajasthan Royals opted to play him as mostly an Impact Player, giving the captaincy to allrounder Riyan Parag.
If granted permission to keep wickets, Sanju will also return as skipper. Since the Rajasthan Royals’ next match is now only on April 5 at Mullanpur, Samson has enough time to return to the wicketkeeping duties, provided he clears a few “final fitness tests” as a source put it.
Samson has made scores of 66 (vs SRH), 13 (vs KKR), and 20 (vs CSK) in the three games he has played so far purely as a batter as an Impact Player. In his absence, Dhruv Jurel kept wickets for the team.
The Royals have had a mixed start to their IPL campaign, losing their first two games before opening their account with a win against Chennai Super Kings in Guwahati on Sunday night.
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