Yash Dayal has opted out of the IPL 2026, citing personal reasons. Since the end of the 2025 season, the pacer hasn’t played any competitive game due to serious, ongoing legal issues, including accusations of sexual assault and a pending POCSO case. Despite so, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) has decided to retain the player for the forthcoming season. However, he eventually chose to opt out, but the franchise decided against releasing him.
In the meantime, RCB’s director of cricket, Mo Bobat, once again extended his support to Dayal. He also highlighted that the franchise was ready for the worst-case scenario during the auction and recruited accordingly. He named Rasikh Salam Dar, Abhinandan Singh and Mangesh Yadav as potential options who can step up in Dayal’s absence and make a difference.
“The Yash Dayal situation has been tricky because obviously it's been around for some time now. And it's difficult to predict what will happen. We went into our auction planning for a worst-case scenario, that he may not be available for us. And so we have recruited accordingly. We have some excellent domestic fast bowlers in our squad,” Bobat said.
“Rasikh, who many of you will know, Abhinandan had been there last year. And then we also signed Mangesh in this auction. So, domestically, we have three excellent potential options that we're facing. So, it's obviously a blow losing a player like Yash. That's obvious, he's been an important part of us for the last couple of years. But we're very confident in the options we've got in the squad. And we will select a team accordingly,” he added.
Bobat shares update on Josh Hazlewood
Bobat also revealed that they are yet to know about Josh Hazlewood’s availability. He mentioned RCB are working closely with Cricket Australia to understand his potential joining date but nothing has been confirmed yet.
“We are liaising very closely with both Josh and Cricket Australia. And our medical teams are collaborating very strongly on a day-to-day basis on this programme. We'll continue to communicate with him. And as soon as he gets to a point where Cricket Australia are happy, he'll come over. And we hope to have him with us very soon,” Bobat said.
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