Rajasthan Royals' hard-hitting batter Shimron Hetmyer smashed the tripod as he stepped up during the first practice session ahead of IPL 2025. With a voice telling him that the West Indian batter has hit the tripod, the left-hander reacted to it by stating that, 'It's a good start to the season'.

Hetmyer was one of the players retained by Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sandeep Sharma, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel ahead of the auction. In 41 matches since joining the franchise in 2022, the southpaw has smashed 726 runs at 36.30 alongside a strike rate of 154.46. The Royals would hope that Hetmyer continues to deliver promising performances for them.

Rajasthan Royals to open their IPL 2025 campaign against the SunRisers Hyderabad

The inaugural IPL champions will get their campaign underway against the SunRisers Hyderabad on March 23 in an afternoon fixture at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. The Royals had made it to the top four last year and it was the SunRisers, who ended their campaign in the play-off fixture, beating them by 37 runs.

Rajasthan Royals squad: Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Sandeep Sharma, Jofra Archer (Rs. 12.50 crore), Maheesh Theekshana (Rs. 4.4 crore), Wanindu Hasaranga (Rs. 5.25 crore), Akash Madhwal (Rs. 1.20 crore), Kumar Kartikeya (Rs. 30 lakh), Nitish Rana (Rs. 4.20 crore), Tushar Deshpande (Rs. 6.50 crore), Shubham Dubey (Rs. 80 lakh), Yudhvir Singh (Rs. 35 lakh), Fazalhaq Farooqi (Rs. 2 crore), Vaibhav Suryavanshi (Rs. 1.10 crore), Kwena Maphaka (Rs. 1.50 crore), Kunal Rathore (Rs. 30 lakh), Ashok Sharma (Rs. 30 lakh).

Ahead of IPL 2025, they also changed their coach, with Rahul Dravid replacing Kumar Sangakkara at the helm.