Rajasthan Royals (RR) batter Riyan Parag has faced flak for his social media activities every now and then. Besides, the youngster also drew criticism from the media and former cricketers, who have asked him to focus on cricket.

In his recent interview with Cricket.com, Parag opened up on the criticism and social media trolling, saying that he learnt it the hard way that the outside noise needs to be ignored.

"I can be macho and tell you that none of that bothers me (the criticism). But then I have learnt it the hard way that I should keep these things to me. 2020 IPL was the lowest point of my career. I had a great season in 2019. I was just 17 and I expressed myself and I had the best season and I was on top of the world," Parag stated.

"The media made me feel like I was the king of the world. The next day when I did not perform, the people that were praising me, they just flipped. I was in Dubai and we were in quarantine, I would think to myself, 'what even am I doing'? I would question everything. 'Why am I being trolled on social media?' The same dances that I would do before people were hating on it now," he added.

Riyan Parag also came under the scanner for his poor showing in the IPL 2023 season, where he scored 78 runs from seven matches at an average of 13 and was dropped from the Rajasthan Royals playing XI as well.

"I figured out after one more season that there was no point reading all of this because people are going to have opinions no matter what," Parag said.

After the conclusion of IPL 2023, Riyan Parag regained his form in the 2023 edition of the Deodhar Trophy.

While his team East Zone failed to cross the final hurdle, Parag won the Player of the Tournament award. He finished the List A tournament as the highest run-getter, the player with the most sixes, and the third-highest wicket-taker.

In five innings, Parag amassed 354 runs with two hundreds and also a knock of 95 in the summit clash. He also picked up 11 wickets in the tournament, including two four-wicket hauls.