Only Riyan Parag Can Save Riyan Parag in the IPL!
As a professional cricketer you don’t want to face multiple troubles; being in the heat for just one undesirable reason or occurrence is enough.
But where Riyan Parag’s career stands at the moment as far as the Indian Premier League’s 2023 edition is concerned, it can be clearly seen he’s got more than one trouble brewing for him.
For starters, he’s not in form. Perhaps not even remotely close to making the numbers that ramp up a scoreline and suggest something’s hit or hot.
What else is not working?
Moreover, the big news concerning Riyan Parag is that he might not feature in the next game for the Rajasthan Royals.
Should that be the case, it’ll be the major downer for a capable batter who in the past had shown that he’s got what it takes to make a career playing T20 cricket and arguably speaking, the smashing one that there is in the world cricket.
What’s probably worse for Riyan Parag is that he’s lost form, rather put it succinctly, not had any at the very time when the rest of his Rajasthan Royals teammates have been making runs and creating headlines for the fireworks with the bat.
While waxing lyrical all day may never make anyone wise, what certainly won’t either would be to deny the pure truth offered by statistics.
And they seem to suggest that right now, the others seem to have it, but not Riyan Parag.
Sanju Samson has already fired two half-centuries and a 42 in the tournament and there are many more games to happen. Being the captain, he’s leading by example and calling on his teammates to deliver vital results to prove their worth.
The others too, by the way, have responded. Jos Buttler is back to doing what he does best: smashing bowlers in the IPL. The man who wore the orange cap in the past edition is beating the bowlers red, black and blue.
Ditto for Shimron Hetmyer. There was a time when thanks to Riyan Parag’s ingenious hitting in the death overs, it was remarked that along with “Hetty”, he was Rajasthan’s other death-over specialist batter.
But while the big-hitting Guyanese has got the job and has hit one and all out of the park, the Royals facing the ire of the left-hander most recently, what has Riyan Parag done?
Though, none of that is as irksome and debate-worthy as what Riyan Parag himself declared on Twitter of all platforms around a fortnight before the start of this season of the IPL.
He’d post that, "I’m getting a feeling that at some stage of this IPL, I’ll be hitting 4 sixes in an over!"
You think of the expression “What a bummer” or if not, then, “What a blooper” when you think of stuff like that.
Surely, if a Gayle, Dhoni, Virat, Faf or where the present form is concerned, then Shivam Dube say such a thing, you got the believe your cricketers. You have faith in such a bold statement.
Though what Riyan Parag then by calling it loud over social media was a sort of self-capitulation. No other phrase in such a situation suffices.
But rather interestingly, the debates circling Riyan Parag just seem to linger on and truth be told, over 60 hours have passed since the Royals played their most recent game.
What was achieved, the critics and the great debaters' remark, by sending Parag ahead of Hetmyer?
With scores of 5,7, 20 and 7 so far, the young right-hander who’s currently being described as if he were some fool about town has only himself to blame.
Can you even point fingers at his franchise? Have they not given him sufficient chances to prove his worth?
But truth be told, from what one has seen in this edition, it’s about as clear as the clarity of the water in a freshwater lake that Riyan Parag’s batting lacks that element of patience.
Surely, when you bat in a league such as the IPL, you don’t always get too much time or chances to make an impact. Strike rates are key. The ability to quickly change gears is what counts. You score rampantly, and more chances come to you.
But that doesn’t mean you don’t plan out your innings.
Take Hetmyer, who’s so often self-plotted his dismissal as an example. What’s clear about his approach this time around is that the leftie plans the bowlers he is to target.
In the successful chase against Gujarat, he quite simply stayed out of harm when it came to facing Rashid Khan. He made up his mind to go after the other medium pacers.
Can be slightly more watchful hold Riyan Parag in good stead?
Or rather to go for a more radical call, is it best to have him play for a bit as an impact player? Can he then make an impact?
Irrespective of our whims or fancies, it’s not us the opinion makers but Riyan Parag who’s got to figure it out for himself.
Surely, at 21, he’s got an entire world ahead of him. He’s the one who should be able to rectify the odds and clean up the mess that’s made his IPL journey rather messy.
What’ll be quite handy is to recollect the heroics of the 2022 Vijay Hazare trophy where thanks to sheer consistency, the right-hander stroked his way to 552 runs for Assam.
He’s got talent but only he can prove whether he can make the most out of it.
IPL batting average
2019: Average 32.00
2020: Average 12.28
2021: Average 11.62
2022: Average 16.64
2023: Average 9.75*
 "Dev Tyagi")
