After giving him a shot at captaincy in the initial phases of the IPL last season, the Rajasthan Royals have made 24-year-old Riyan Parag as their full-time captain for the upcoming IPL 2026 season.
The Royals, who are the winners of the inaugural edition of the IPL, are looking to fill the void left behind by Sanju Samson, who was traded to Chennai Super Kings in exchange for Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran after IPL 2025 ended.
Parag, meanwhile, paid rich tribute to his predecessor at the helm in a press event, saying that Samson was irreplaceable.
“We never thought of replacing him (Sanju Samson). Can you replace Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli? No. In the same manner, Sanju bhaiya is irreplaceable,” Parag told journalists in an interaction. “We can try someone with a similar skill set or ask someone to bat in his position, but he cannot be replaced. This year, the focus is to plan better and finish games, which we couldn’t do in the previous edition.”
Samson left Rajasthan Royals with a long list of accolades, even though he could not guide them to the title in his reign. He took over captaincy from Steve Smith in 2021 at the age of 26. He led Rajasthan Royals in 67 matches, winning 33 and losing 32. He took the team to the playoffs twice: in IPL 2022 (where the Rajasthan Royals made it to their first final since 2008 before losing to Gujarat) and then in IPL 2024.
Given his captaincy record at the Jaipur-based franchise, Samson was Rajasthan Royals’ most successful captain in the IPL. In fact, in 2024, he shot past the legendary Shane Warne’s record of leading the Rajasthan Royals in the most number of matches. A year later, Samson became the most successful skipper in terms of number of wins in 2025. He was also the only Royals captain to have led the team into two playoffs in IPL, even though Warne is the only captain to help RR win a title.
