Riyan Parag has earned plenty of criticism, earned and unearned, since he made his IPL debut at 17 years old. Now 24, Parag finally seems to have a firm idea of who he is as a cricketer, and has been rewarded in turn with the captaincy of Rajasthan Royals – the youngest skipper in this year’s IPL, and at the helm of a young and talented team trying to make waves.
In the last two years of the IPL, only seven players have scored more runs than Parag, who has seen a massive uptick in form in this period. This is a portion of his career that has taken the Assam batter some time to achieve – and plenty of mental fortitude.
Parag has found himself at the end of plenty of social media storms, as a character who is self-confident but equally one who is not afraid to rustle a few feathers with what he says and how he acts. This has meant that he has had to develop thick skin, and emulate a popular player from the Indian cricket team.
Speaking to Times of India, his father Parag Das revealed that the advice he had given his son was to be more like Hardik Pandya, who had to fight through his own bad times and eras of trolling and criticism to become the player and world champion he is today.
“I gave him the example of Hardik. Back then, I felt really bad seeing Hardik face all the booing,” explained Das.
‘Let your bat do the talking’
“We were coming out of the airport in Guwahati when I spoke to him about social media trolling. I told him that people are trolling you because they expect better from you,” he elaborated. Parag was certainly a work in progress for much of his IPL career – he debuted in IPL 2019, but needed until 2024 to come into his own with a monstrous 573-run season.
“You are being trolled across the country. The kind of start you had, you have not quite lived up to it, and public opinion has changed. Let your bat do the talking, and the same people trolling you will start supporting you,” was his father’s advice to him at the time – and the bat has certainly done the talking.
In turn, Parag was rewarded with greater responsibility by RR, batting higher up the order and getting a chance to lead the team as they played matches in his home of Guwahati. With Sanju Samson traded away to CSK, the faith in Parag continues to grow, as he nudged ahead of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel to receive the captaincy.
With a good RR squad, Parag will want to become the first captain for this team since Shane Warne to take the trophy back to Jaipur.
