The troubles continue to mount for Riyan Parag. The Rajasthan Royals skipper once again failed to get going in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 and returned with a single-digit score against the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. The right-hander scored just seven runs before being clean bowled by Sunrisers skipper Pat Cummins. These low returns with the bat are not sitting well with former India batter Virender Sehwag, and hence, he questioned the elevation of Parag as the captain.
Sehwag also criticised Parag’s choices on the field as Sunrisers Hyderabad chased down the target of 229 with five wickets in hand and nine balls to spare. The former India opener was quite critical of Parag for giving just one over each to tried and tested spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Bishnoi.
In the match against Sunrisers, Rajasthan tried out eight different bowlers, but the strategy didn’t pay off as the visitors chased down 229 owing to half-centuries by Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan.
Earlier, before the start of the IPL 2026 season, Royals’ coach Kumar Sangakkara had revealed that the franchise interviewed five players, including Parag, Sandeep Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja to choose the ideal captaincy candidate and eventually the all-rounder was chosen.
“Rajasthan Royals need to think about Riyan Parag’s captaincy. The management has to think whether he is the right captain for them. You could have interviewed all 25 people, but that doesn’t serve any purpose,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
“Both Jadeja and Bishnoi bowled just one over. You should have given them one more over. If you give them just one over, who will take wickets? If Bishnoi and Jadeja bowled, they would have gone after the wickets,” he added.
‘Will keep thinking’
Sehwag also said that Parag’s confidence as captain would definitely be affected by his underwhelming batting. In the eight matches, the 24-year-old has returned with just 88 runs, with his highest score being 20 against the Lucknow Super Giants. He is averaging 12.57 in the 19th edition of the T20 tournament so far, and the strike rate is languishing below 113.
“As a batter, if I’m the captain, and I am not scoring runs. My captaincy will be affected. I will keep thinking about my runs. I will keep thinking that Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashed a hundred off 36 balls, and I am a senior, so why am I not scoring runs?” said Sehwag.
“It does affect your batting as you keep thinking about yourself,” he added.
In the match against SRH, Rajasthan reached the score of 228 on the back of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s knock of 103. Dhruv Jurel (51) was the only other batter to play a substantial knock, rest all left much to be desired.
With the loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Royals dipped to the fourth spot in the points table. The franchise will next face the Punjab Kings on Tuesday, April 28, in Mullanpur.
