After a memorable 2025 season in the Indian Premier League where they won their first-ever title, Royal Challengers Bengaluru are gearing up for an exciting challenge of being defending champions. While the celebrations of the title win ended in disaster due to a stampede at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, things now seem to move slowly getting back to normalcy for the franchise after a long gap.
However, RCB have a big call to make regarding one of their key players heading into IPL 2026. Yash Dayal is currently undergoing investigation for multiple allegations of sexual assault. One of those cases, registered in Jaipur, involved a minor and a special POCSO Court on December 24 denied anticipatory bail to Dayal due to the serious nature of the allegations.
Dayal is said to have sexually assaulted the survivor across a period of two-and-a-half years, mostly in hotels between Jaipur and Kanpur. With the survivor having been a minor during the timeline of allegations, things have escalated for Dayal, especially with a series of compelling proofs now in the custody of the police.
In such a scenario, will RCB include Dayal for the upcoming IPL season? The left-arm pacer was one of the retained players in the setup at a value of Rs 4 crore. He also played a crucial part in RCB's title-winning campaign in IPL 2025. However, unconfirmed reports suggest that Dayal is unlikely to feature in IPL 2026, unless he gets a major relief from this POCSO case.
Dayal, though, has strongly denied the allegations and has gone on record stating that this is an attempt to defame him. This case, though, is the second serious allegation against Dayal with the earlier one registered in Ghaziabad. However, the Allahabad High Court had issued a stay on his arrest in that case. What makes the Jaipur case more serious for Dayal's future is that this is a POCSO case.
While there is still time for RCB to make a final call on this, sources say that the team management and major stakeholders have thought about potential replacements for Dayal, so that they don't leave it too late.
