Not Yashasvi Jaiswal or Ravindra Jadeja, THIS star player to be named new CAPTAIN of Vaibhav Suryavanshis Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2026: Check when and where to watch RR announcement LIVE
Rajasthan Royals are set to announce their new captain for the IPL 2026 season after the departure of Sanju Samson to Chennai Super Kings last year.
Updated: February 13, 2026 10:59 AM IST
Rajasthan Royals are set to announce their new captain for IPL 2026 on Friday. (Photo: BCCI/IPL)
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season is set to get underway next month and one of the teams yet to announce their captains for the upcoming season are the Rajasthan Royals. The inaugural IPL champions traded their skipper Sanju Samson to MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings in exchange for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran.
RR are now set to announce their new skipper for the IPL 2026 and it is not going to be Yashasvi Jaiswal or Ravindra Jadeja but the mantle is reportedly being passed onto young Assam all-rounder Riyan Parag.
According to a report in ESPNCricinfo website, Parag is set to be announced as the new Rajasthan Royals skipper on Friday evening. The 24-year-old all-rounder has led RR in the IPL 2025 season as well when Samson was ruled out of as many as eight games last year.
Parag managed to win only 2 out of the 8 matches that he led RR in IPL 2025 season. However, Rajasthan Royals finished in disappointing 9th place in IPL 2025 and failed to qualify for the Playoffs stage. Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who was signed up for Rs 1.1 crore, replaced Sanju Samson as opener when he was injured.
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The RR all-rounder had an average of 38.57 in those matches, ending the standby captaincy stint with a career-best 95 against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The report added that new RR head coach Kumar Sangakkara had interview with a number of players in the squad before finally finalising Parag as the new skipper. With Parag’s appointment, RR will have a new captain as well as a new head coach with Sangakkara taking the place of Rahul Dravid from last year. RR managed only 4 wins from 14 matches last year.
Since his IPL debut in 2019, Parag has played the last seven seasons for RR. The IPL 2024 edition was the breakthrough year for Parag as he notched up 573 runs at an average of 52.09, while striking at 149.21. Overall, he has played 84 matches for RR for 1,566 runs and claimed seven wickets.
Samson turned out for RR in 11 IPL seasons and had indicated after the last year that he was looking for a change, and wanted to be released by the franchise.
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