Not Jadeja, this player set to be named Rajasthan Royals captain for IPL 2026: Report

All-rounder Riyan Parag is set to be announced Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. After Sanju Samson was traded to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran, Parag is expected to take over the reigns.

As per a report by ESPNCricinfo, Parag and a few other players were in contention for the captaincy role. Head coach Kumar Sangakkara had interviews with these players but finalised Parag as captain. While the list of captaincy candidates has not been made public, the contenders were Jadeja, Curran, Dhruv Jurel and a young Yashasvi Jaiswal.

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Parag’s IPL captaincy record

However, this will be not the first time Parag will don the captaincy hat. Under head coach Rahul Dravid, Parag was stand-in captain as Samson missed several games in IPL 2025 due to injury.

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Parag in elite company

Parag captained in eight games and emerged victoriously in just two. He is the seventh captain of the RR franchise. He joins the legendary list of Shane Warne, Shane Watson, Dravid, Steve Smith, Ajinkya Rahane and Samson.

Parag returns with a bang

Meanwhile, Parag has been out of the Indian side due to a shoulder injury. Since then, he hasn't been selected in T20Is or ODIs. Recently, he played for India A in ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 warm-up. Against USA, he remained unbeaten for two runs. He got to bat at no.4 against Namibia and contributed with a 39-ball 69, featuring six sixes and five fours.

Rajasthan Royals’ full squad for IPL 2026

Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Donovan Ferreira, Sandeep Sharma, 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, Ravi Bishnoi, Sushant Mishra, Yash Raj Punja, Vignesh Puthur, Ravi Singh, Aman Rao, Brijesh Sharma, Adam Milne, Kuldeep Sen.