SA teen superstar Lhuan-dre Pretorius signs with Rajasthan Royals

The 19-year-old has been brought in as cover for Indian batter Nitish Rana and will be with the Rajasthan squad for the remainder of the 2025 IPL tournament. The deal is worth a reported R650 000.  

"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."

While Pretorius has not been capped at any senior level by the Proteas, the Potchefstroom native has continued to turn heads with his swashbuckling form.

He made his T20 franchise debut for Paarl Royals in January in the 2025 SA20 and scored a career-best 97 on debut from 51 balls against Sunrisers Eastern Cape. Shortly after, he scored 83 from 52 balls against MI Cape Town.

Following that, Pretorius hit consecutive limited-overs centuries for the Titans in the One-Day Cup and then collected two centuries in the 4-Day Domestic Series.

"His batsmanship is on another level, it looks like he's been playing the game at this level for years," said Titans captain Neil Brand in April.

"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.

"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."

READ MORE: Rohit Sharma retires from Test cricket - 7 highlights from his storied career