IPL 2026: Why is Ravindra Jadeja not playing DC vs RR Match 62?

Delhi Capitals (DC) are taking on Rajasthan Royals (RR) in Match 62 of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 in an all-important encounter at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi, on Sunday, May 17. Star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was not picked in the playing XI in this clash, leaving fans wondering behind his absence. 

DC vs RR: Toss Update

The toss went in favour of the hosts as Riyan Parag called it incorrectly. Rajasthan were asked to bat first in a match where both the teams are in dire need of a couple of points to keep their hopes for playoff qualification alive. Axar Patel confirmed the team’s atmosphere with the team playing a do-or-die contest against Parag & Co.

DC v RR: Ravi Singh, Adam Milne in for RR; T Vijay handed debut

Speaking of the changes to the team line-ups, Delhi Capitals handed a debut cap to right-arm off-spin bowler Tripurana Vijay. Meanwhile, RR also made a couple of strategic changes to their line-up, with Ravindra Jadeja asked to warm the bench. In his place, Ravi Singh made his way into the XI. Adam Milne is also playing his maiden game of the season.

DC vs RR: What did the captains say?

Axar Patel, DC captain, 

“We would like to bowl. Obviously when you win, you feel good, and the atmosphere is positive too. Even when we were losing, the atmosphere was still good; it’s not like we were pointing fingers at anyone. But when you come after winning, you carry that confidence forward as well. There is only one change. Looking at the nature of the pitch, unfortunately Auqib Nabi misses out, and instead Vijay Tripurana is making his debut.

“(On the conditions) Earlier I used to think a lot after seeing the wicket, but now I’m not thinking too much because whenever I’ve tried to predict it, the opposite has happened. So I think now we’re outside the leg stump and just bowl according to our plans, and once we understand how the wicket behaves, we’re outside the leg stump, adjust quickly and bowl accordingly. Yes, obviously at that moment you do feel bad when a decision doesn’t go your way or things don’t happen the way you wanted.

“But as a professional cricketer, you have to forget those things because you can’t keep carrying them forward all the time. If you hold on to them, I think it interferes with the decisions you make in future matches. So you leave those things on the ground. As they say, what happens on the field stays on the field, and off the field, life stays off the field. When you leave the ground, you should leave it there, stay happy, and enjoy yourself. Maintaining that is very important.”

Riyan Parag, RR captain, 

Happy to be back first. I was pretty unsure about the wicket as well. It looks like it’s dry, but then we’ve seen the past scores and results here, chasing has been better, though it also tends to slow down a bit later on. So I was a little confused, but happy to bowl first because of that. We’ve had some ups and downs in the last few games. I think we haven’t defended totals very well.

But today gives us another opportunity to do that and hopefully get it right. So we’ve gone with an extra seamer today, and hopefully we can defend the total better. Almost there (on figuring out the best team). We’ve had a few injuries here and there. I had to step out as well, so that hasn’t helped either. But as far as today is concerned, there’s just one change. Jaddu is out because of workload management and all of that, and Ravi Singh comes in for us.

DC vs RR: Playing XIs

Delhi Capitals

KL Rahul (w), Abishek Porel, Sahil Parakh, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Axar Patel (c), Madhav Tiwari, Tripurana Vijay, Lungi Ngidi, Mitchell Starc, Mukesh Kumar

Impact Substitutes: Ashutosh Sharma, Sameer Rizvi, Vipraj Nigam, Pathum Nissanka, Karun Nair

Rajasthan Royals

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (w), Riyan Parag (c), Ravi Singh, Donovan Ferreira, Shubham Dubey, Jofra Archer, Adam Milne, Brijesh Sharma, Yash Raj Punja

Impact Substitutes: Dasun Shanaka, Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Ravi Bishnoi, Sushant Mishra, Aman Rao Perala