Riyan Parag has rubbed people the wrong way ever since he stated that he wants to be the greatest finisher in Indian cricket. The batter for the Rajasthan Royals (RR) was in the spotlight more for his actions than for his performance with the bat in the recent IPL 2022.
Fans were outraged when Parag ridiculed the third umpire after his catch of Marcus Stoinis was overturned, and then when he expressed frustration at senior partner R Ashwin during a miscommunication during a run-out. He had also shouted at Devdutt Padikkal for not properly covering his fielding effort.
All of this comes after Parag finished the IPL 2022 season with only 183 runs in 17 games.
Madan Lal, India's 1983 World Cup-winning all-rounder, was harsh in his evaluation of Parag. In fact, according to Lal, Parag is one of the few players who hasn't improved as the IPL has progressed from season to season.
And it's difficult to disagree with the assertion. Parag made 160 runs from seven matches in IPL 2019 – his greatest season – while the 20-year-old could only muster added 86 runs from 12 games in 2020 and 93 runs from 11 games in 2021.
"Riyan Parag has played all matches but hasn't given a single performance. When you talk of him… he is not that big a player who can change the game. Until now, all the IPLs that have taken players, and all the players who have taken part, they have shown improvement and stepped up.
But this player (Parag) hasn't shown any progress given the number of chances he has got. The slot in which he plays is very important in T20 cricket. Because that is where you can accelerate and score runs. Now if you can’t score runs from there, your difficulties will only increase," Lal said on Sports Tak.
Despite his on-field antics, Parag has the support of Kumar Sangakkara, his coach, and co-director at Rajasthan Royals. The Sri Lanka veteran defended the under-fire batter, claiming that promotion to the top of the batting order next season might bring out the best in him.
"I think Riyan Parag… he has got a huge amount of potential, and we got to work him into higher batting number by the time we come in next season. I look forward to kind of grooming him to become more of a kind of an early middle-order player rather than just a death-hitter. Because, I think he is so accomplished against spin as well as pace," the Sri Lankan batting great noted.
