Rajasthan Royals sign Sandeep Sharma as Prasidh Krishna's replacement for IPL 2023

Rajasthan Royals (RR) have roped in Sandeep Sharma as a replacement for Prasidh Krishna ahead of IPL 2023. Krishna has been ruled out of the tournament as he is yet to recover from a stress fracture.

Sandeep Sharma has a ton of IPL experience under his belt. The right-arm pacer is a new-ball specialist, who has troubled some of the world's best batters in his IPL career. Before joining the Rajasthan Royals, Sharma had stints with the Punjab Kings and SunRisers Hyderabad in the IPL.

Announcing the replacement with a post on Twitter, the Rajasthan Royals wrote:

"Okay then, making this official. Sandeep is a Royal."

Sandeep Sharma made his IPL debut 10 years ago

As mentioned earlier, Sharma has a lot of IPL experience. He made his IPL debut for the Punjab Kings in a match against the SunRisers Hyderabad at the PCA IS Bindra Stadium back on May 11, 2013. Sharma bagged a three-wicket haul on debut, dismissing Hanuma Vihari, Cameron White and Biplab Samantray.

Sandeep has played 104 IPL matches so far in his career. He has picked up 114 wickets and maintained an economy rate of 7.77. The right-arm pacer played for the Punjab Kings in IPL 2022. The Kings picked him in their playing XI for five matches, where he took two wickets at an economy rate of 7.65.

Despite his decent performance, Sharma was not retained by the Punjab Kings for IPL 2023. He remained unsold at the subsequent mini auction as well. The fast bowler was disappointed after failing to earn a contract.

In an interview with cricket.com after the auction, Sandeep said:

"I don't know why I went unsold. I've done well whichever team I had played for and genuinely thought some team would bid for me. To be honest, I was not expecting this."

Sandeep Sharma will be motivated to perform well for RR in IPL 2023, now that the franchise has given him an opportunity to prove himself.