Director of Cricket Mo Bobat of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) announced on Tuesday that controversial pacer Yash Dayal will not be playing for the team in the 2026 IPL, but he is still under contract.
Dayal, 28, has not participated in any competitive cricket since making an appearance in the IPL 2025 final, which RCB won to become champions for the first time. Dayal is currently dealing with two allegations of sexual exploitation.
“So just to confirm that Yash will not be joining up with the squad. As you know, he is going through a personal situation currently, and just to clarify, we’ve been very supportive of Yash to date, and that’s reflected in the opportunity to either retain or release players,” PTI quoted Bobat as saying in the season-opening press meet in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
“We wanted to retain him, and he remains under contract and will continue, you know, in the short term, foreseeable to remain under contract,” he added.
Two women, one of whom is a minor teenager, have accused Dayal, who recently got married, of sexual exploitation. According to Bobat, the franchise has maintained contact with him.
“We are communicating with him regularly, you know, I spoke to him earlier today as well. But it has been decided that it is not in his best interest, or in the franchise’s best interest, for him to join up with us at this point.
“We won’t be making any other further comments on that at this stage. But he obviously retains our support, he remains under contract, and we’ll continue to speak to him as he goes through his personal situation,” he explained.
They have enough depth in their ranks, according to Bobat, to cover for Dayal.
“If we were thinking of domestic replacements, if that’s what we were looking to do, then I mentioned Rasik (Salam), Abhinandan Singh and Mangesh (Yadav). There’s three very good options.
“All three of those have had excellent preparatory camps so far. So we’ve kept all our options open. I enjoyed scouting Mangesh in the off-season, prior to the auction,” he said.
Bobat said that Dayal, the RCB’s joint-highest wicket-taker in 2024, will be missed.
“…it’s obviously a blow, losing a player like Yash. He’s been an important part for us for the last couple of years, but we’re very confident in the options we’ve got in the squad,” he said.
Additionally, Bobat believed that Aussie pacer Josh Hazlewood would be able to return to the team as soon as his recuperation was complete.
