Yash Dayal will not join the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) squad for IPL 2026. Mo Bobat, the RCB director of cricket, confirmed that Dayal remains contracted with the team, but will be unavailable for the entire season.
“Spoke to him earlier today; but decided it’s not in his and franchise’s best interest to join the squad due to the personal situation he’s dealing with,” Bobat said in a press conference on Tuesday. He did not go into further detail.
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Dayal has not played any matches since the final of IPL 2025 in June, and faces legal charges relating to sexual assault.
“Yash Dayal situation was tricky,” Bobat said. “We went into auction planning in a worst-case scenario that he won’t be available.”
Dayal’s unavailability deepens something of a fast-bowling crisis at RCB, with Australia quick Josh Hazlewood also set to miss the early part of the season as he recovers from long-standing injury issues.
Bobat said RCB were liaising with Cricket Australia (CA) and hoped to “have him very soon”.
Without Hazlewood and Dayal, RCB’s fast-bowling stocks consist of the experienced India swing bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, uncapped Indian quicks Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh and Mangesh Yadav, overseas quicks Jacob Duffy and Nuwan Thushara, and the West Indies allrounder Romario Shepherd.
