Riyan Parag has been a part of the Rajasthan Royals team for a long time. He even got a chance to captain the side, but things haven’t been going well for him. He hasn’t been able to lead RR to victory or score runs as a batsman. After he made another mistake on the field, Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar had something to say about it.
During the match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Parag dropped an easy catch of the dangerous Phil Salt. Commentating after the drop, Gavaskar wondered if the pressure of captaincy was affecting his fielding too. He also mentioned that Parag was not having a great season, which is a sharp contrast to his last one, where he scored 573 runs at an average of over 50.
Although Sanju Samson was the regular captain, Parag got a chance to lead the team after Samson got injured. Rajasthan Royals have won only 2 out of 8 matches, losing several close games. They could’ve won their last three matches against LSG, DC, and RCB but failed to chase relatively easy targets. As a result, fans trolled them heavily, calling them “chokers.”
Riyan Parag is not having the best of seasons. Is the captaincy affecting his fielding? We’ve seen captaincy affect batting and blowing, but in his case, it is also fielding.”
– Sunil Gavaskar during commentary
Talking about the match, RCB batted first and set a target of 206 runs. RR got off to a good start, thanks to Yashasvi Jaiswal, who scored 49 runs off just 19 balls. Parag tried to continue the momentum but managed only 22 off 10 balls. With just 18 runs needed from 12 balls, Josh Hazlewood turned the game around for RCB. RR failed to chase the target and lost the match by 11 runs.
Ex-Indian player Amit Mishra slams Riyan Parag for blaming his teammates for the loss against RCB
Rajasthan Royals lost five matches in a row for the first time in IPL history. Their latest defeat came against RCB in yet another close game. After the loss, former Indian cricketer Amit Mishra criticized stand-in captain Riyan Parag.
In the post-match presentation, Parag criticized RR’s lower middle-order batters, saying that Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel should have executed their shots better. Mishra hit back, slamming Parag for blaming his teammates. He pointed out that Parag himself played an unnecessary shot at the wrong time and left his team in trouble.
“You could have won with an over to spare if you hadn’t got out at the wrong time. The kind of shots that you are attempting in a crunch situation, those could have been avoided. You should have thought of taking the match deep and finishing it.”
– Amit Mishra on the Cricbuzz post show
Mishra further added that Parag could have avoided playing that shot, as it wasn’t needed at that moment. He said it was Parag’s responsibility to take the match deep and finish it. Parag never looked in good touch, with a few of his boundaries coming off edges. Eventually, Krunal Pandya dismissed him, triggering RCB’s comeback.
