Riyan Parag New Captain Rajasthan Royals PtiImage Credit source: PTI
Only about 40 days are left for the beginning of the IPL 2026 season and this time the league’s first champion Rajasthan Royals (RR) will enter in a completely new style. Before the start of the 19th season of IPL, RR has announced its new captain. After Sanju Samson left the franchise, now young all-rounder Ryan Parag has been made the captain of Rajasthan Royals. Proving all the speculations and claims right, the Royals officially announced that Ryan will now take charge of the team. In this race, Ryan left behind 6 contenders including Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravindra Jadeja.
This is how Ryan got the command of RR
Rajasthan Royals announced the appointment of Riyan Parag as captain in a social media post on Friday, 13 February. However, there was no doubt about this and from the beginning it was believed that this star all-rounder from Assam would get the command. The same thing happened. But the management of RR did not take this decision easily and reached this big decision after going through a rigorous process. At least this is what franchise owner Manoj Badale and cricket director Kumar Sangakkara claimed in a special video.
An 11-minute video was posted on the Royals’ social media accounts, in which Badale and Sangakkara explained the process of selecting the captain. During this, franchise owner Badale revealed that there were 7 contenders in front of him and all were very strong contenders. All of them were interviewed and many types of questions were asked. Sangakkara told that he asked very tough questions to these candidates and also understood their point of view. Also noted how many of those players have captained at any level.
Built here. Tested here. Trusted here. Rajasthan, your new captain is here. motiv
Inside the decision that opens a new chapter. Watch the final episode of pic.twitter.com/0d0HAkrC0d
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) February 13, 2026
Became captain leaving behind these 6 contenders
Only after this, Riyan Parag was selected, who had captained RR in some matches last season and has also led the Assam cricket team in domestic cricket. Although, he himself did not tell who were the remaining 6 contenders, but in the same video, pictures of 7 players including Riyan Parag were shown, from among whom the captain was to be selected. Among these, star opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, who returned to Rajasthan after being traded from CSK, were the most special names. Apart from these, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Joffra Archer and Sandeep Sharma were also in the race for captaincy.
(News is being updated)
