Riyan Parag and Sanju Samson (Image credit: BCCI/IPL) NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag and Sanju Samson share a strong bond from their time together with the franchise. Parag has often spoken about how much he learned from Samson during his time with Royals before moving to Chennai Super Kings last year. During the draw for the IPL 2026 clash between Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad, Parag made a special mention of his former captain.After winning the toss and electing to bowl, Parag said: “We’ll bowl first. New wicket for us, first time used this season too. So let’s hope there’s a bit of stickiness at the start. We’ve got a lot of totals here. We fell behind in 2024, so hopefully not this time. We’re going from two paces. Tush, Hesthar Desh and Brije. rest and Pretorius will make his debut.”
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Prasidh Krishna on GT’s bowling performance Reflecting on his journey to the captaincy, he added: “It’s been a journey. I was under (Sanju Samson) Bhaiya for the longest time and then Sanga (Kumar Sangakkara, head coach and director of cricket) did a really good job of improving me in all the decisions and involving me in all the tactical and strategic meetings. Now I think I had a lot of things to do.Parag was named the captain of Rajasthan Royals ahead of IPL 2026 following Samson’s trade to Chennai Super Kings.Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Ishan Kishan also confirmed two changes to his side.“We have two changes from the last game, (Praful) Hinge is coming in (and veteran Jaydev Unadkat is missing, Harshal Patel is among the impact players),” Ishan said.Speaking about leading, he added: “I think I’ve been doing it for a long time. I was a leader in India Under-19s, I did it for my national team and I think it makes you more aware of the situation, more focused on the game. You try to do more for your team because it’s never about individual performance; it’s always about teamwork. So I think we’ve done that and I think we’re doing it in a very good way.” team, and you’ve done well, it shows a lot of maturity that a player has some growth in him now, so it’s helped me a little bit in the last few years, being the leader of my team and doing well for the team, so what more can you ask for?Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (w), Riyan Parag (c), Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Tushar Deshpande.Rajasthan Royals Impact Subs: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravi Singh, Shubham Dubey, Brijesh SharmaSunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (w/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Praful Hinge, Eshan Malinga.SRH Impact Subs: Smaran Ravichandran, Sakib Hussain, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Mavi, Harshal Patel.
