The Rajasthan Royals have signed South African batsman Lhuan-dre Pretorius for the remainder of the 2025 Indian Premier League.
He has replaced Indian batsman Nitish Rana in Rajasthan’s squad for the approximate equivalent of R650,000.
Pretorius was the leading run-scorer in the 2025 SA20. He played for the Paarl Royals.
Earlier this year, he hit consecutive limited-overs centuries for the Titans in the One-Day Cup, division one. He also collected two centuries in the 4-Day Domestic Series, division one, this year.
“The Rajasthan Royals have named Lhuan-dre Pretorius as a replacement for Nitish Rana, who has been ruled out of the remainder of the 2025 Indian Premier League due to injury,” read a statement from the IPL.
“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.”
Pretorius hasn’t been capped at Test, ODI or T20I level by South Africa.
“His batsmanship is on another level, it looks like he’s been playing the game at this level for years. It’s really encouraging and good for cricket in South Africa. I hope they do get him into the national set-up pretty quickly because I think he’s ready,” said Titans captain Neil Brand, who captained the Proteas during last year’s Test series against New Zealand.
“His batsmanship in the last couple of days has been incredible to watch. Just the way he’s figured out what the bowlers are trying to do and his plans to combat that have been phenomenal to watch.
“He’s got all the shots, all the talent in the world; he’s really hungry to score runs and hits thousands of balls every week.”
Lhuan-dre Pretorius.
The Rajasthan Royals currently occupy last position on the 10-team IPL points table and have been ruled out of contention for a play-off berth.
The Gujarat Titans, meanwhile, are at the top of the points table. The Titans have South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada back for the remainder of the tournament.
Rabada recently completed a one-month suspension for the use of a prohibited substance.
“Speaking about Kagiso, I’d like to just get a couple of things across. The first of which would be that Kagiso has expressed regret at an error in judgement,” said Gujarat Titans director of cricket Vikram Solanki.
“He’s made a telling statement. I read his statement, and I thought that his statement speaks volumes about the personality of the character that he is. He has expressed regret, as I said. But he is very much looking forward to getting back to playing the game he loves.
“He will take his, sort of, lessons from this and we’re just looking forward to having him back part of our group, having him back at practice. He served his time.
“The second thing I’d like to place on record is that as far as procedure and protocol is concerned, everybody that’s involved in this episode, right from Kagiso, his representative, all matters, as far as requirements go, have been followed to the letter.”
MORE latest cricket news
- Matthew Breetzke: I’d 100% much rather be here than at home
- Bjorn Fortuin: Is it warranted that I lost my contract?
- Proteas lose second position to England in ICC Test rankings
- Kagiso Rabada ban is over – he can resume playing immediately
- No CSA contract for Heinrich Klaasen – ‘Discussions ongoing’
- Neil Brand: Lhuan-dre Pretorius ready for national set-up
- Sarel Erwee retires from professional cricket
- Rassie van der Dussen: I need to start stepping back