IPL 2026: Rajasthan Royals appoint Riyan Parag as their new captain

In an interesting turn of events, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) have appointed their middle-order batter Riyan Parag as the new captain for the forthcoming IPL 2026 season. Notably, this move was made after Sanju Samson departed from the squad to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in exchange for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran.

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For the unversed, Parag led the Royals in the eight games when Samson wasn’t part of the XI in the IPL 2025 season. Interestingly, the RR side could bag only two wins in those eight fixtures. While captaining the side, Parag scored at an average of 38.57 with the career-best score of 95 against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens.

According to the report published on ESPNcricinfo, head coach Kumar Sangakkara had interviews with a few players and finalized Parag as the new captain. Notably, RR will have a new head coach and captain for the new season after Rahul Dravid left his role post IPL 2025 season.

Unfortunately, the Royals could secure the ninth spot in the IPL 2025 season with four wins from 14 games. Since his IPL debut in 2019, Parag has been part of the RR set-up across seven seasons. His best season came in 2024, when he accumulated 573 runs at an average of 52.09.

Rajasthan Royals squad for IPL 2026

Retained players

Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Lhuan-Dre Pretorius, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Kwena Maphaka, Nandre Burger. Traded in: Ravindra Jadeja (from CSK), Sam Curran (from CSK), Donovan Ferreira (from DC).

Players bought 

Ravi Bishnoi (7.20 cr), Ravi Singh (95 L), Sushant Mishra (90 L), Vignesh Puthur (30 L), Yash Raj Punja (30 L), Aman Rao (30 L), Brijesh Sharma (30 L), Kuldeep Sen (75 L), Adam Milne (2.40 cr).

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