Riyan Parag doesn’t sound like a man losing sleep over who will lead Rajasthan Royals next season. Sanju Samson’s surprise move to Chennai Super Kings has created a vacancy, yet the 23-year-old all-rounder insists he will worry about leadership only after the mid-December IPL auction – and only if the franchise asks him to.
“There haven’t been any discussions about captaincy at RR yet,” Parag told ESPNcricinfo. “Manoj (Badale) sir (the team owner) has told us that the decision will be made only after the auction. I’m not thinking about it right now either. If I start thinking about it now, it will mess with my mindset, and a significant amount of mental space will be occupied by just one thing – captaincy, captaincy, captaincy.”
He added, in the same breath: “If the team and management feel that I’m the right fit for the captaincy role, then I’m more than ready. Similarly, if they feel that I can contribute more effectively to the team as just a player, I’m ready for that too. My main goal is to have a season where I score 500-600 runs and take 10-15 wickets and help the team win the trophy.”
Those numbers feel ambitious but not outlandish for a cricketer who, until a shoulder problem flared up during India A duty in July, looked close to a senior white-ball debut. Parag says the shoulder is “getting there”, and medical staff expect him to bowl at full tilt before the New Year. “Once that happens,” a national selector noted privately last week, “his name will come straight back into the conversations for the T20 side.”
Parag stood in for Samson during eight IPL 2025 fixtures, steering a depleted Royals side to two victories. The record doesn’t scream success, yet the youngster believes the stint sharpened his reading of match situations.
“Last year, I captained in seven or eight IPL matches, and I don’t know what people outside think, but when I went into the dressing room and analysed my decisions with the coaches and data analysts, about 80 to 85% of my decisions were correct,” he said. “You learn a lot from that, and when you go to the big stage, you don’t feel the pressure of how to captain or how to manage the team and the field. Overall, I always enjoy captaincy, and it has helped me evolve a lot as a person.”
That appetite for responsibility stretches back to domestic cricket, where Parag has captained Assam in all three formats since 2021. Results have been mixed – Assam sit fifth in their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy group this year – yet observers believe the side’s gradual improvement reflects his maturing game awareness.
The Royals, for their part, appear relaxed about entering the auction without a designated skipper. Parag explained the rationale: “In RR, any major decision that is made involves all of us. Any big decision is made only after consulting everyone. For example, now that Jaddu bhai (Jadeja) has joined, he will definitely be a part of our leadership group. There are around four or five people in this leadership group. If we need to trade a player in the team, or if we need to bid for a player in the auction, we discuss it with this leadership group and the coaching staff, and only then do the team owners make a decision. So I don’t think we need a captain before the auction to go there and raise the paddle for us.”
The reference to Ravindra Jadeja – signed in a high-profile swap with Chennai days before the Samson deal – underlines the broader shift inside the franchise. A dressing-room voice with 300 international caps instantly alters the dynamic; Parag seems content to learn from him, whether as skipper or deputy.
Off the field, Samson’s departure still stings. “Sanju bhai has played a huge role in my career. I don’t want to think about him leaving because if I do, I’ll feel bad,” Parag admitted. “I was very close to him, and when I first joined the team, he never made me feel like I was just a 17-18-year old kid from Assam. Perhaps that was also because he had a similar background and had also come from Kerala.”
For now, Parag’s checklist is straightforward: finish rehab, score heavily in the Ranji Trophy, bowl his leg-breaks without restriction and arrive at the IPL auction free of captaincy clutter. Whether the Royals hand him the armband or keep him as a senior pro, he knows the scrutiny will follow. The trick, he jokes, is to ignore “all that noise on social media” and keep things as simple as bat, ball and a recovering shoulder.
If he manages that, the captaincy conversation may take care of itself.
