Rajasthan Royals is still on top of the points table in the Indian Premier League season 2023 with four wins in six matches. Although the franchise has one of the most potent squads in the T20 league, there are still a few players in the team who have yet to prove their worth. One of those players is all-rounder Riyan Parag. In fact, there are many people who feel that it was Parag's sluggish 12-ball 15 against the Lucknow Super Giants that took the match away from the Royals on Wednesday.
He also got criticised by the former head coach of the Indian cricket team, Ravi Shastri, who questioned his intent after he scored only four runs in the first eight balls, despite the fact that he came out to bat in the final phase of the chase.
Shastri said during the commentary, "They lost Samson, they lost Buttler, they lost 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.
He further said that "runs started coming in singles, and there was a period of 28 balls at that stage without a boundary." "When you go through that much time without a boundary, you are asking for trouble."
Even the former captain of England's cricket team, Kevin Pietersen, was criticising the performance of Parag as he said, "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 order. Parag was given the responsibility, and they watched how he played. They had such a strong batting line-up. They could have gone for the kill much earlier.
There are lots of people who are questioning the place of Parag in the team because his unbeaten knock of 15 runs against the Lucknow Super giants was his highest in the campaign till now.