Rajasthan Royals announced their captain for the upcoming edition of the IPL (IPL 2026) on Friday. Sanju Samson, who has led the team for the past several seasons, was traded to Chennai Super Kings before the 19th season of the IPL. The team has not handed over the captaincy to veteran Ravindra Jadeja, who joined Rajasthan from CSK, but instead appointed Riyan Parag as captain.
In the last edition of the IPL, Riyan Parag captained the team for three matches due to Sanju Samson's unfitness. When Parag captained the team for the first time on March 23, 2026, against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he became the youngest player to captain the team.
Riyan Parag Appointed Rajasthan Royals captain
The 24-year-old Riyan Parag has led RR before. He did so last year when Samson missed eight matches due to injury. Parag led RR in those eight matches, winning only two of them. Parag averaged a decent 38.57 in those matches, and extended his streak with a career-best 95 against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Eden Gardens.
Riyan Parag IPL Career
Since making his IPL debut in 2019, Parag has played all seven seasons for RR. He played in all their matches in the last two seasons. The 2024 edition was his best run tally – 573 – which he scored at an average of 52.09, with a strike rate of 149.21. Overall, he has played 84 matches for RR, scoring 1,566 runs and taking seven wickets.
Rajasthan Royals squad for IPL 2026
Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Donovan Ferreira, Luan-Dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Aman Rao Perala, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Riyan Parag, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Quena Mphaka, Ravi Bishnoi, Sushant Mishra, Yash Raj Punja, Vignesh Puthur, Brijesh Sharma, Adam Milne, Kuldeep Sen, Sandeep Sharma, Nandre Burger.
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