Can Rajasthan Royals continue stellar form in IPL against SRH?

by Devesh Jaganath

image Can Rajasthan Royals continue stellar form in IPL against SRH?
We are now 20 games into the 2026 Indian Premier League, and the one team that has surpassed all expectations so far is the Rajasthan Royals, who lead the league standings. RR have won all four of their matches in the competition to date, but can they maintain their perfect start against the Sunrisers Hyderabad today?

Red-hot Royals look to scorch Sunrisers in fifth IPL match

Being a Rajasthan Royals supporter over the past few years has been a rollercoaster ride, as the franchise has alternated between playing remarkably well in one season before failing to reach the Playoffs in the next. 

However, RR fans have reason for major optimism this year, as they have seen their side surge to the top of the leaderboard in the first couple of weeks. Indeed, the Royals are the only team in the competition still holding a perfect record of four wins in four matches, and a strike rate of +2.055.

The team kicked off the 2026 campaign with a commanding eight-wicket victory over the Chennai Super Kings on March 30, which confirmed our IPL predictions, before pulling off a thrilling chase of 204/8 against the Gujarat Titans five days later in Ahmedabad. 

Thereafter, Riyan Parag’s side defeated the five-time IPL winner, Mumbai Indians, in a rain-affected match by 27 runs, and went on to down the reigning champions, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, by six wickets and with 12 balls to spare last Friday in Guwahati. 

The driving force behind the Royals’ success this season has been their young top-order, spearheaded by wonderkid Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who is the current Orange Cap holder with 200 runs in four games, and holds the highest strike-rate (266.66) of any player to have scored 100+ runs in the competition. 

However, it is not just the 15-year-old who has caught the eye, as Yashavi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel are also in the top five run scorers in the tournament, while Ravi Bishnoi currently sits second in the Purple Cap standings, with nine wickets, just one shy of the current leader Prasidh Krishna. 

Meanwhile, the Sunrisers Hyderabad have endured a tough start to their season, picking up just one win in four games. SRH’s batting order has been impressive, though, with Heinrich Klaasen being the second-highest run scorer in the competition, while the ultra-dangerous Abhishek Sharma is starting to rediscover his form. 

However, the one major area of improvement for the Sunrisers is their bowling department, where they have sorely missed their skipper Pat Cummins. The Aussie international is dealing with a back injury and has had to return home for further evaluation before being cleared fit to resume duty. 

Romi Bhinder in hot water after breaching IPL protocol

The one blip on what has otherwise been an incredible start to the season for the Royals came on Friday in their match against RCB, where the team manager, Romi Bhinder, was caught breaching an IPL protocol by using a mobile phone in the dugout. 

The incident was captured on camera and has raised integrity concerns over potential influence on the game. The BCCI swiftly confirmed that Bhinder’s actions breached the Players and Match Officials (PMOA) protocol, which explicitly prohibits managers’ use of mobile devices during games. 

The Anti-Corruption Unit and the match referee will now review the footage and submit their findings to the IPL Governing Council, who will decide on the disciplinary action necessary. What complicates matters further is that Sooryavanshi was also captured glancing at the phone screen during the incident.