Riyan Parag has been a permanent member of Rajasthan Royals’ playing 11 for quite a long time. However, the right-hand batsman has failed almost every time to play big innings for his team. In yesterday’s match between Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants, his innings of 15 not out off 12 balls at a strike-rate of 125 left fans infuriated.
Parag’s knock was criticized by former India coach Ravi Shastri, who said that his innings killed whatever chances RR had.
“They lost [Sanju] Samson, they lost [Jos] Buttler and [Yashasvi] Jaiswal but still they had enough, a lot of depth. I think that period of play when Riyan Parag came in and the way he played his first eight balls changed the course of the match. Padikkal, at the other end, lost his rhythm as well. Runs started coming in singles and there was a period of 28 balls that stage without a boundary. When you go through that much time without a boundary, you are asking for trouble,” Shastri told Star Sports after the match.
“They knew what they were chasing. Luckily, they are on top of the table and they will learn a lot from this defeat. They will learn about the changes in their batting unit. Parag was given the responsibility, they watched how he played. They had such a strong batting line-up. They could have gone for the kill much earlier.”