(Image source from: sports.ndtv.com)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) cricket director Mo Bobat has announced that left-arm bowler Yash Dayal will not be part of the team for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season, despite still having a contract with the team. There was considerable backlash regarding RCB's choice to keep the bowler when the retention and release list was released before the auction. However, Dayal's lack of presence in the training sessions for RCB prior to the new season raised suspicions about the team's decision to exclude him. It has now been revealed that Dayal will not play for Bengaluru this year due to a "personal situation. " Bobat told reporters on Tuesday, "To clarify, Yash will not be joining the team. He is facing a personal situation right now, and I want to stress that we have been very supportive of him thus far, as seen by our choice to retain him when we could have let him go or kept him."

"We aimed to keep him, and he still has a contract that will remain in effect for the time being," Bobat said to the media at a press conference. "We are in regular contact with him. I talked to him earlier today as well, but it has been determined that it is not the right time for him or for the team for him to come back right now." "He has our support, and he still has a contract, and we will keep talking to him as he deals with his personal situation," he mentioned. Dayal, who was crucial in RCB's 2025 title victory with 13 wickets throughout the season, has been out of action since the final last year. His absence is connected to ongoing legal matters, which have stopped him from returning to competitive cricket. For RCB, this is a considerable loss. Dayal's left-arm bowling offered diversity to their lineup, working well with the experience of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the spin bowling led by Krunal Pandya. Without him, the team must depend on its depth and foreign players to keep their bowling lineup balanced. Since he is still under contract, the team cannot select a replacement for him.

The choice to keep Dayal under contract indicates that RCB is not ending their relationship, but whether he will be available in the future will depend on how his personal and legal issues are resolved. As the IPL 2026 season begins on March 28, RCB will concentrate on changing their bowling tactics while dealing with the loss of a reliable player. With Dayal not part of the team, other players such as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Nuwan Thushara, Jacob Duffy, Rasikh Salam, Abhinandan Singh, Mangesh Yadav, and Romario Shepherd will need to take on greater roles. Yash Dayal is facing charges in two separate criminal cases involving serious claims of sexual misconduct. The first case was registered in July 2025 at the Indirapuram Police Station in Ghaziabad, where a woman accused him of emotional and physical exploitation under false marriage intentions after a five-year relationship.

Soon after, another case was reported in Jaipur under the POCSO Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, featuring allegations from a teenager who said Dayal sexually abused her several times since 2023, including one incident during the 2025 IPL season at a hotel where he supposedly offered to help her career. While the Allahabad High Court has stopped his arrest in the Ghaziabad case, a POCSO court in Jaipur denied his request for anticipatory bail in December 2025, pointing out the seriousness of the evidence and the ongoing investigation.