WATCH: Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag caught vaping in dressing room during chase

In a shocking turn of events, Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag is caught on camera vaping midway through his team’s run chase against Punjab Kings in the just-concluded IPL 2026 thriller in Mullanpur. Just seven balls after his dismissal off Yuzvendra Chahal, Parag, sitting inside the team’s dressing room, was on record vaping, shocking the fans worldwide. Even though his team won the match, snapping hosts Punjab Kings’ IPL 2026 winning streak, getting caught vaping could potentially land him in trouble.

A video of the same has gone viral on social media, which shows the Royals’ captain vaping casually and rather carelessly in the presence of teammates Dhruv Jurel and Yashasvi Jaiswal, all three of whom were dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal in the second innings.

WATCH VIDEO -

Considering that smoking in any form is completely prohibited in the dressing room and the stadium premises, it was shocking to see a franchise captain openly doing it, that too in the presence of seniors and teammates. What Parag was smoking - an e-cigarette/vape - is banned in India under The Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Act (PECA) 2019, and whose production, sale, purchase, import, export and advertisement could lead to imprisonment and hefty fines.

This act raises serious concerns over smoking vapes because they are neither legal nor regulated in the country and may require further investigation.

"Unlike smoking a cigarette, you don't know what you are inhaling when it comes to vaping. There is a reason why it is banned in the country, and one has no clue about the ingredients which go inside it and whether it meets the safety guidelines. Especially for an elite athlete. The franchise and the captain will need to keep their reasons ready because the BCCI is unlikely to come down soft on an incident like this," an industry source close to the information said in a chat with Times of India (TOI).

Meanwhile, this is not the first time the Royals have found themselves in hot water in this edition. Earlier, the team manager, Romi Bhinder, violated PMOA protocol by casually using his mobile phone in the team dugout, sparking debate all over.

RR crush PBKS

Rajasthan, however, has snapped Punjab’s winning streak this season by beating them by six wickets in a thrilling run chase in Mullanpur. While the Royals jumped to third place on the points table, Punjab maintained their top spot with 13 points from eight contested matches.