Finishing in ninth place in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, the inaugural title winners, Rajasthan Royals (RR) will be eager to bring an end to their extended trophy drought in IPL 2026. With only a few countable days remaining for the tournament, the Royals will be stepping on to the field with some new faces as well as a new captain in Riyan Parag. While the expectations remain high from the RR camp, the team also has some problems to address. In this article, we have listed three weaknesses which might see the Jaipur-based franchise struggle in IPL 2026.
3 Weaknesses in Rajasthan Royals (RR) camp ahead of IPL 2026
Bowling consistency and death-over concerns
One of the biggest concerns in the Rajasthan Royals camp ahead of IPL 2026 is bowling consistency and death-over execution. While the franchise has a mix of experienced and young bowlers, maintaining control during crucial phases of the match remains a challenge. Even with quality pacers like Jofra Archer and Sandeep Sharma in the setup, the bowling unit has lacked consistency in delivering accurate yorkers, slower balls, and variations under pressure.
Moreover, with Archer as key pacer and having a past with injury setbacks, the Royals will need to carefully manage their pace attack throughout the tournament.
Uncertainty over captain Riyan Parag
One of the key discussions revolves around Riyan Parag in leadership role. While Parag has emerged as an important player for RR in recent seasons, handing him the captaincy brings both opportunity and risk for the franchise heading into IPL 2026.
While Parag’s limited captaincy experience at the highest level is one of the biggest setbacks, leading a team in IPL also requires strong tactical awareness, calm decision-making under pressure, and the ability to manage experienced international players. As a relatively young cricketer, Parag will face the challenge of guiding a squad that includes seasoned players and handling high-pressure match situations.
Over reliance on Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran
While the inaugural title winners saw the biggest trade deal in Sanju Samson moving to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) with Sam Curran and Ravindra Jadeja making way into RR squad, there now remains over-reliance on these two key all-rounders. With the Royals already expecting big roles and cameos from the two, this over reliance could backfire of either of the players fail to make match-winning contributions, moreover seeing their performance in the last few editions where they have failed to make an impact.
RR IPL 2026 squad
Batters: Riyan Parag (Captain), Shubham Dubey, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Donovan Ferreira, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Singh, Aman Rao Perala, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel
All-rounders: Yudhvir Singh Charak, Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran
Bowlers: Jofra Archer, Tushar Deshpande, Kwena Maphaka, Ravi Bishnoi, Sushant Mishra, Yash Raj Punja, Vinesh Puthur, Brijesh Sharma, Adam Milne, Kuldeep Sen, Sandeep Sharma, Nandre Burger.
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