Aakash Chopra feels that Rajasthan Royals have acquired Nandre Burger for next season of the IPL instead of the current one, as the South African pacer is unavailable for the ongoing campaign. Burger, who played for RR in 2024, was signed as a replacement for the injured Sandeep Sharma after the Royals were knocked out of IPL 2025.

However, as RR restart their campaign against PBKS on May 18 in Jaipur, Burger won’t be part of the squad. Speaking on his YouTube channel, the former cricketer said that he is wondering what the Royals have done at the moment as no team would take a player as a replacement if he is already injured.

“There is no Jofra Archer. There is no Nandre Burger. Burger hasn’t come, or he is already injured. He is not available, and I am thinking, what have you done? You took him as a replacement for Sandeep Sharma. You won’t take a replacement if a player who comes as a replacement gets injured,” said Chopra.

Chopra feels that Royals haven’t thought about the current campaign while selecting Burger as they’re looking to ace the auction next season.

“They have basically done it for the next year only. Rajasthan haven’t thought about this year at all because they cannot play Nandre Burger now as he isn’t available. They have selected an unavailable player so that they can ace the next year’s auction. Very interesting choice,” said Chopra.

Burger has 7 wickets in 6 matches in IPL. The left-arm pacer was signed on May 8, before the IPL was suspended, meaning that he can be retained by the Royals ahead of the IPL 2026 auction.

‘Rajasthan’s known problems will keep mounting’

Chopra feels that Rajasthan’s known problems will keep mounting as they will have many key players unavailable for the clash against PBKS.

“I don’t have any idea about Sanju Samson’s availability. Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag will play here. (Lhuan-dre) Pretorius has come. He is a good batter. They don’t have (Maheesh) Theekshana as well. Many of their players are not there. So Rajasthan’s known problems will keep mounting,” said Chopra.

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