Kamal Ghorui
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Royals team is in the throes of transition, with the long-time captain-coach combine of Sanju Samson and Rahul Dravid now gone for good, replaced by the young new skipper Riyan Parag and head coach Kumar Sangakkara. Uncertain times lie ahead but the franchise is hoping the drastic change will reverse its fortunes.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Having already seen several ups and downs in his short career, Riyan has matured enough to acknowledge the huge contribution of his predecessor Samson, who was traded to CSK prior to the season. Riyan, 24, the youngest captain in IPL-2026, admitted that he would be personally missing his “Sanju bhaiya” and his exit has created a big void that cannot be easily filled. Addressing the media in a pre-season press conference here on Thursday, Riyan compared the departure of Samson with ‘RoKo’.“If you talk about Sanju Bhaiya, we never think about replacing the kind of player he is. We can perhaps look for someone with a similar skill-set or have someone bat in his position. It’s like there is no replacement for Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma. In the same way, there is no replacement for Sanju bhaiya because he is such a good player,” said Riyan.‘Stay off social media’The newly-appointed RR captain wants batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi to enjoy his game without being burdened by “additional pressure”. “As a captain my message to him would be to not do a lot of press conferences or follow a lot of social media. He’s playing really well and he’s going to make the country proud. He should continue to play his natural game,” said Riyan, adding that the 14-year-old Sooryavanshi will pair up with fellow southpaw Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top of the order.“My only message for Vaibhav is if the first ball is meant to be hit, hit it. There’s no issue in that. I don’t think any young player has done what he has over the last one year. I’m sure he’ll form a formidable opening combo with Yashasvi,” added Riyan.The Royals had a frustrating last season, crashing to 10 defeats to finish ninth in the 10-team standings. Riyan wants to start afresh. “This year, the focus is to plan better and finish games, which we couldn’t do in the previous edition.”
