Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) pacer Yash Dayal will not participate in IPL 2026, team director of cricket Mo Bobat said on Tuesday. Bobat said Dayal will miss the upcoming IPL season as he is going through a “personal situation”, but clarified that he remains under contract.
“Yash Dayal will not be part of RCB this season. He is going through a personal situation. He remains under contract. It has been decided in his best interest,” Bobat said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The Yash Dayal Controversy
Dayal has recently been embroiled in off-field controversies. He was accused of raping a minor in Jaipur, who alleged that Dayal sexually abused her over a long period of time, with the cricketer promising her help in building her cricket career.
In December last year, Yash Dayal was denied anticipatory bail by a POCSO court in Jaipur, citing the seriousness of the crime as the reason for denying bail. In another incident, a 28-year-old woman was booked in a sexual exploitation case in Ghaziabad, where the complainant alleged that Dayal exploited her physically, mentally and financially on the basis of a false promise of marriage.
However, the Uttar Pradesh cricketer has denied all the allegations. Amidst all the sexual exploitation allegations, Yash Dayal got married to content creator Shweta Pundir in Noida on 4 February 2026.
The wedding was a private affair with only close friends and family in attendance. Dayal joined Royal Challengers Bengaluru from Gujarat Titans for ₹5 crores in the IPL 2024 player auction. He played 29 matches for RCB in which he took 28 wickets.
In RCB’s title-winning IPL season last year, the left-arm medium pacer took 13 wickets from 15 matches at an economy rate of 9.59.
He started his IPL career with GT in 2022 and played for them for a few seasons before joining the now defending champions.
Overall, Dayal took 41 wickets from 43 matches. Royal Challengers Bengaluru will begin their IPL title defense with a home match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on March 28 in Bengaluru.
