Rajasthan Royals To Play Home Matches At Pune’s MCA Stadium In IPL 2026

Pune's Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium is set to turn pink as the home matches of the Rajasthan Royals (RR) are likely to be played here in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.

Reportedly, the decision has been made after the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, the franchise’s regular home base, failed to comply with evacuation safety norms. There have also been reports of disagreements between RR and the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA).

Pune's MCA Stadium has hosted IPL matches in the past. The city had two teams -- Pune Warriors and Rising Pune Supergiants -- which are currently non-existent. Besides, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) had used the venue as their base in 2018 and went on to lift the title. RR will be hoping for a similar outcome.

RCB showed interest

Meanwhile, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) had also shown interest in shifting their home venue to Pune. This came after the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru was embroiled in controversy following a stampede on June 4 that led to the deaths of 11 people during the celebration of the team’s first-ever IPL win. The stadium was also removed from the list of hosts for the recently concluded Women’s World Cup.

However, it appears that the Chinnaswamy Stadium will host IPL matches this year as well. After Venkatesh Prasad became the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) president, efforts have been underway to bring the matches back to the venue.

RR's mini auction

In the recently concluded mini auction, RR went big for India spinner Ravi Bishnoi, buying him for Rs 7.2 crore from his base price of Rs 2 crore. RR also roped in former MI player Vignesh Puthur for Rs 30 lakh and Yash Raj Punia for Rs 30 lakh.

Ahead of the mini auction, RR traded Sanju Samson to CSK and received Jadeja and Sam Curran in return. They retained others, including Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh, Sandeep Sharma, and Tushar Deshpande. The two overseas players retained were Nandre Burger and Shimron Hetmyer.