Kumar Sangakkara, the director of cricket for the Rajasthan Royals (RR), has acknowledged that batter Riyan Parag has not been performing well in the IPL 2023. He went on to say that the problem will be fixed and evaluated during training in the coming days. Parag scored 15* off 12 balls as RR went down to the Lucknow Super Monsters (LSG) by 10 sudden spikes in demand for Wednesday, April 19, neglecting to pursue an objective of 155. The 21-year-old had scored seven, 20, five, and seven before the game against LSG.
In his innings against LSG, the right-handed batter struck out four and six, but RR fell behind the asking rate. In a post-match press conference, Sangakkara responded to a question about Parag’s struggles:
He can simply go out and hit as many sixes as he can in that situation (the final two overs). Riyan has a very precise strategy. We only required two to three sixes in the middle overs, and we had Dhruv (Jurel) to kind of take care of the pace.
“He’s been batting well in the nets, Parag,” Considering our local talent, we back our players quite well, especially when he comes in as an impact sub or DDP (Devdutt Padikkal) comes in as an impact substitute. Sadly, he hasn’t been in great shape. We will evaluate that, address it during his training, and observe where we get to over the course of the subsequent few games.
The Assam cricketer’s overall IPL record is subpar. At an average of 16.46 runs per game and a strike rate of 123.61, he has scored 576 runs in 52 matches.
“We weren’t adequately committed” – Sangakkara discontent with absence of batting goal
Rajasthan got off to a good start, scoring 155 runs, as their openers added 87 runs. However, as LSG’s bowlers stifled RR’s bats, they lost their way after that.
Sangakkara said that the batters weren’t committed enough to defeat the bowlers after the failed chase. He remarked:
“We weren’t committed enough to take him down look for three four sixes at the back end, especially (Ravi) Bishnoi’s last over. It didn’t matter if the batter got out that time. The pitch was tough. Lucknow bowled actually astutely and yet we ought to have over the line.”
Sangakkara went on to say that while the openers, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler, established a solid foundation, the middle order was unable to take advantage of it. He stated,
“The first team played very well. We were requiring eight once the twelfth over was done with 10 wickets close by, that is not extremely troublesome on a major ground.”
In the 13th over, RR was 93/1. However, LSG gained momentum when Sanju Samson was run out for two. Rajasthan was eventually held to 144/6.