‘That is what I do’ – Parag relishes success at No. 4 with Royals
Riyan Parag‘s promotion to No. 4 is paying dividends for Rajasthan Royals. It’s a place acquainted to 22-year-old Parag, who topped the run-scoring charts – with 510 runs at a mean of 85 and strike charge of 182.79 – within the newest version of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He has carried that type into IPL 2024.
Coming into the sport against Mumbai Indians on Monday on the again of a 29-ball 43 and an unbeaten 45-ball 84, Parag, with Royals in only a little bit of hassle at 42 for two chasing 126, stored his calm and took them over the road with an unbeaten 39-ball 54. With 181 runs in three innings, he additionally turned the joint-highest run-getter in IPL 2024 together with Virat Kohli, however forward on the listing due to a superior strike charge.
“When I play domestically, this is the exact type of situation I go in to bat,” Parag instructed the host broadcaster after the sport. “When Jos [Buttler] bhai got out and Ash [R Ashwin] bhai got out a little after, I was like ‘this is what I do, this is what I’ve been doing for the last six months playing domestic cricket’. So it was pretty simple to calculate everything.”
Royals had restricted Mumbai Indians to 125 for 9 however had been rocked early by Kwena Maphaka and Akash Madhwal. But Parag carried on unfazed and stitched a 40-run stand with Ashwin to relax the camp.
Parag had been used primarily as a finisher by Royals up to now, and his returns had been patchy.
“I have had three to four years of not performing at all, or even performing if it’s one match a season,” Parag stated. “And you really go back to your hotel room and you think… that when you know you can do something and the performances are not coming, you get back to the drawing [board]. I tried finding what was wrong, and I figured out that I was not practicing at this level enough.
“So I went again after the [last] season and practised very exhausting, and I feel that is displaying now. I’ve practiced [against] some of these fast balls and these sorts of eventualities loads, therefore the performances.”