Rajasthan Royals (RR) have appointed Riyan Parag as the captain for IPL 2026 season ahead of many senior players, raising a lot of eyebrows.
The major leadership transition follows a high-profile trade that saw long- standing captain Sanju Samson move to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in exchange for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran.
While Parag served as a stand-in captain for eight matches during the 2025 edition when Samson was sidelined due to injury, this marks his first official stint as RR’s full-time skipper.
Ahead of the team’s campaign opener against CSK on Monday (March 30), RR head coach and Director of Cricket, Kumar Sangakkara, explained the decision to name Parag as captain by bypassing more experienced players like Jadeja.
"There were five candidates, including Sandeep Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja. We had very strict parameters as how we are going to choose, what is the process, so we had lots of conversations with all candidates and we realised all are very capable of captaining our side. Riyan came across as the top candidate because in all his conversations he seemed to have matured a lot," Sangakkara said, as quoted by PTI.
"He was very reflective in answering all the questions and the questions were very tough, targeted questions. Some of those questions were quite uncomfortable for all of them. Riyan with his maturity, what is vision for the side, he wanted not just to captain but to lead the team, it made him the leading candidate.
"We went with an open mind and gave due respect to all the players, gave all an equal chance and picked the best candidate," he added.
Sangakkara mentioned that Riyan Parag will have a strong support system of experienced players to lean on. He also acknowledged that Parag is likely to make mistakes as a young leader but expressed confidence in his ability to grow from them.
"Captaincy and leadership are two different things. Both are never easy. We looked at maturity, ability to reflect on themselves not just others, we look at ability to think critically, we look at how authentic they are in terms of their answers, we look at how they can influence others around them, not just young players but players who are seniors."
"No captain or leader is perfect. I know how many mistakes I have made. But that's how you learn and Riyan is going to have a lot of support -- Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Dasun Shanaka. So he has got a lot of people whom he can lean on in tough times.”
Commenting on their trade, Kumar Sangakkara expressed that while losing a leader like Samson was difficult, the addition of two world-class all-rounders like Jadeja and Curran provides essential balance to the squad.
However, Curran has been ruled out of the tournament due to a groin injury, with Dasun Shanaka being named as his replacement.
"The best trade is where both sides are happy but slightly unhappy and that's a great trade. To be very honest we are extremely sad to see Sanju go, he has been incredible player for us, leader, captain but we knew it was inevitable that was going to happen. I think we got very very two good players, one legend in Jaddu and and Sam which balances out our squad," he said.
"Trade has helped us to balance out our side but unfortunately Sam had to pull out because of injury."
(With PTI Inputs)
