Nitish Rana said that he was completely okay with Rajasthan Royals (RR) making Riyan Parag the stand-in captain for the first three matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2025).
The Assam all-rounder was appointed as the stand-in captain because primary skipper Sanju Samson was not medically cleared to keep wickets or field in the matches. Under Parag’s leadership, the inaugural champions lost the first two games before emerging victorious in the third. Nitish played a gem of an innings against Chennai Super Kings, slamming 81 off 36 balls to give Parag his first win as a captain in the IPL.
Nitish, who was roped in by the franchise at the IPL 2025 mega-auction for INR 4.20 crore, was another contender for the stand-in captaincy role. He had led his former franchise – Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) – in IPL 2023 in the absence of Shreyas Iyer and showed potential as a captain. However, Parag was given the nod of approval by the RR management.
Rana backs Parag’s captaincy, cites team familiarity
Nitish Rana said that this was the correct decision. He explained that he had been with the KKR team for several seasons before being appointed as the captain. The southpaw said that he had a better understanding of the team environment. Similarly, Parag has been with the Royals since IPL 2019 and this gave him an advantage.
“When I was made captain of KKR, I had been with the team for 6–7 years. That helped a lot because I understood the team culture and environment. Now, with RR, I think Riyan knows the team’s setup better than me. And I think it was absolutely the right decision by the management,” Nitish was quoted as saying by India Today.
The experienced Uttar Pradesh batter, however, admitted that he would have accepted captaincy had it been offered to him.
“If they had asked me, of course, I would’ve happily accepted the captaincy. But what matters most is what’s right for the team. And I think they made the correct call,” he said.
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