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]Pune’s MCA Stadium Set to Become Rajasthan Royal's Home Ground for IPL 2026
by K D Mishra
Rajasthan Royals will be playing their IPL 2026 season at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Gahunje, Pune, which signals the end to their long-term relationship with Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
This will be at least for this season. Known as the ‘SMS’ ground, they played as many as 67 games there, winning a handsome 43 of them. In the last five years, however, the returns have been reduced as they have won only six out of their last 15 games, losing the remaining nine.
As reported by RevSportz, this decision comes following the non-compliance of the venue in Jaipur with the new guidelines regarding evacuation and safety.
Since it is not clear when these matters will be attended to, the Royals were swift in finding a new base, and the best site available is the one in Pune. The operations team of the Rajasthan Royals had visited Pune last month to inspect the MCA Stadium.
New Home Venue for RR in IPL 2026 🏟️
— TheRealIPL (@the_ipl_com) January 2, 2026
Rajasthan Royals will play most of their IPL 2026 home matches in Pune, after Jaipur failed to meet updated safety and evacuation norms, as per RevSportz.
- The franchise has finalized the MCA Stadium as their primary base, while Guwahati… pic.twitter.com/4ODwfypu1j
It has now been decided that Pune will host the majority of the home matches of the team during IPL 2026. For the third successive year, Guwahati would be the secondary home of the team, where the team would be playing three matches.
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Ravindra Jadeja All-rounder
Ravindra Jadeja (Full Name: Ravindrasinh Anirudhsinh Jadeja) is India's star all-rounder, known for his left-arm spin, batting prowess, and exceptional fielding, representing India, Saurashtra, and primarily the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL (after starting with Rajasthan Royals, RR), holding records like being the quickest left-arm bowler to 200 Test wickets, winning multiple ICC trophies, and earning honors like the Arjuna Award.The MCA Stadium is not an unfamiliar venue for the IPL. The Rising Pune SuperGiants (RPSG) had the stadium as their home base for the 2016 and 2017 IPL seasons.
Then came the 2018 season, where the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) famously adopted the stadium as their home and gave the entire IPL a thrilling experience by winning the title. Rajasthan will be hoping for a similar experience in Pune. Interestingly, the stadium was also in advanced discussions with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) team in the earlier part of the year.
The RCB had been scouting out alternative venues as M Chinnaswamy Stadium had been put into a state of utter uncertainty by the safety and security concerns aired by the Karnataka government following the unfortunate incident of the stampede.
Pune is now finalised, and Guwahati has been retained as a secondary venue, so the Rajasthan Royals finally know their 2026 base. But the Rajasthan Royals are yet to decide on a captain for the 2026 season of IPL.
The likely contenders to become the captain of Rajasthan Royals are Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag. But with Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran added to their list, it has become interesting.
