Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan said young players like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi are the faces of Rajasthan Royals ahead of IPL 2026. Suryavanshi scored 252 runs in seven matches of IPL 2025 for Rajasthan Royals at an average of 36 and a strike rate of 206.55 and thus hogged all the limelight.

On the other hand, Jaiswal scored 559 runs in 14 matches for Rajasthan Royals at an average of 43 and a strike rate of 159.71 in IPL 2025. Jaiswal and Suryavanshi will open the innings for the inaugural champions and they will aim to deliver the goods.

“Who is the face of Rajasthan Royals? Your eyes first go towards Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi. The way these two players have taken their careers forward is commendable. When you are young, you lack experience, and sometimes when you come in front of a big player, you appear to be on the back foot. But that was not seen in his case, Suryavanshi ignored the age factor quickly, and he has created a unique place for himself. There is a lot of responsibility on both of them, and in a short time they have become the face of Rajasthan,” Irfan Pathan said on his YouTube channel.

Pathan said RR has Indian core players for the upcoming season of the tournament. RR has players like Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel and Ravindra Jadeja.

“You can see a clear Indian core when you look at this team, where there is good mix of experience and inexperience. If you talk about Yashasvi Jaiswal, he brings experience with him, Riyan Parag has also been playing for many years, and he will be captain now. Dhruv Jurel is also experienced now and then Ravindra Jadeja’s arrival means that the Indian core has a lot of experience,” Irfan Pathan said.

Rajasthan Royals will begin their IPL 2026 campaign against Chennai Super Kings on 30th March at Guwahati.