IPL 2026: Riyan Parag appointed Rajasthan Royals captain

The Rajasthan Royals (RR) have appointed Riyan Parag as their new captain for the upcoming IPL 2026 season after their former skipper, Sanju Samson, was traded to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) squad in exchange for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran.

Notably, Parag led the Royals in eight games when Samson was injured and out of the playing XI in the IPL 2025 season, bagging only two wins. However, in those eight games, Parag scored at an average of 38.57 with the career-best score of 95 against KKR.

According to ESPNcricinfo, head coach Kumar Sangakkara had interviews with a few players and went ahead with Parag as the new captain. Unfortunately, the Royals settled for the ninth spot in the IPL 2025 season with four wins from 14 games. 

It’s worth noting that Samson's exit marked the end of an 11-year partnership with the Royals. Under his captaincy, the Royals fought for the playoffs quite consistently, including advancing to the final in IPL 2022.

Since his IPL debut in 2019, Parag has been part of the RR set-up across seven editions. His best season came in 2024, when he racked up 573 runs at an average of 52.09. In total, he played 84 IPL games, scoring 1566 runs and scalping seven wickets.

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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