Rape accused Yash Dayal to skip IPL 2026, RCB stand by pacer

Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Tuesday confirmed that left-arm pacer Yash Dayal, who has multiple allegations of sexual assault and exploitation against him, will not participate in the Indian Premier League 2026, despite remaining under contract with the franchise

Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, RCB’s director of cricket, Mo Bobat said that Dayal will not be joining the squad due to an ongoing ‘personal situation’. Bobat, however, clarified that despite missing the tournament, Dayal will continue to remain under contract with the franchise and will have the full backing of the team management during this period.

Advertisement

“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 fact that we retained him when we had the opportunity to either retain or release players.

“We wanted to retain him, and he remains under contract and will continue in the short term to remain under contract,” Bobat said.

“We are communicating with him regularly. I spoke to him earlier today as well, but it has been decided that it is not in his best interest or the franchise’s best interest for him to join up with us at this point. He retains our support, and he remains under contract, and we’ll continue to speak to him as he goes through his personal situation,” he added.

In the build-up to the 19th season of the IPL, there has been growing speculation over Dayal’s absence after he was missing from the team’s training sessions and did not feature on the squad poster displayed on the team bus.

Earlier, RCB’s decision to retain Dayal had sparked criticism when the retention list was announced before the auction. The pacer had played a key role in the team’s 2025 title-winning campaign, taking 13 wickets during the season, but has not featured since the final. His absence is tied to ongoing legal proceedings, which have kept him out of competitive cricket.

Dayal, who recently married social media influencer Shweta Pundir, is currently facing two separate criminal cases involving serious allegations of sexual exploitation. The first case was registered in July 2025 in Ghaziabad, where a woman accused him of physical and emotional exploitation under the pretext of marriage during a long-term relationship.

A second case was later filed in Jaipur under the POCSO Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, based on allegations by a minor who claimed repeated sexual assault since 2023, including an incident during the 2025 IPL season.

‘Hope to have Hazlewood with us very soon’

RCB are also likely to begin their IPL 2026 campaign without the services of their premier fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who is currently recovering from hamstring and Achilles injuries that forced him to miss both the Ashes and the T20 World Cup.

Bobat said the franchise is in constant communication with Cricket Australia and Hazlewood regarding his rehabilitation, and remains hopeful that the Australian pacer will join the squad soon.

“So, as most people would know, Josh has missed quite a bit of cricket recently with injuries. So he’s currently working through a return to play programme. He’s doing that in Australia currently. 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,” said Bobat.

“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,” he added.

Meanwhile, the absence of Yash Dayal opens the door for other domestic fast bowlers in the squad to step up. Bobat highlighted players such as Rasikh Salam, Mangesh Yadav and Abhinandan Singh as potential options.

“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 worse 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.

“Rasikh, who many of you will know, had been [with] unit 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 using 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,” said Bobat.

RCB will begin their IPL 2026 campaign against Sunrisers Hyderabad on March 28 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.