Riyan Parag struck left, right and centre; his talent labeled as a waste

Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar attacked Rajasthan Royals batsman Riyan Parag for his outrageous shot selection last night against Sunrise Hyderabad.

The Royals took on the Sunrisers yesterday for the IPL 2024 Qualifier 2 match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. While Rajasthan was coming off a win against an in-form RCB team in the Knockout stage, Hyderabad came after a loss against KKR in the 1st Qualifier. The game was even for both teams and the winner took all.

In the end, it was the second best team on the IPL 2024 points table, SRH, who came out on top and denied Rajasthan entry to their second final in 3 years. Sanju Samson’s side were virtually in the game in both halves, but a poor bowling performance towards the end of the first innings and an equally poor batting performance towards the end of the second innings proved to be the difference.

The shot selection of some players was very questionable and Riyan Parag became a prime example of what causes a lack of patience.

How did Riyan Parag fare against Hyderabad?

Riyan Parag, who is the third highest run-scorer in the league after Virat Kohli and Ruturaj Gaikwad, was given a great platform to deliver a big knock in a high-stakes game. The young man could not have asked for more from the former, as the foundations were perfectly laid for him to put on his best batting display and take his team to the final.

However, it was the lack of patience and recklessness to smash huge sixes to release some pressure that got Riyan Parag out. He had to ensure that he forged a strong partnership with Dhruv Jurel and steadied the Rajasthan ship. Things were tense in the middle as Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson were bowled out in quick succession.

Riyan Parag was just playing the 10th ball of his innings and had scored 6 runs by that time. There was a bit of pressure on him due to the dot balls and he thought the 12th over bowled by Shahbaz Ahmed could be a good opportunity to relax. So he took his chance on the first ball.

Parag was out of sync, his body out of alignment when he decided to take a baseball batter’s swing against a short ball. The ball rose and fell into the hands of Abhishek Sharma. With that, Riyan Parag departed for 6 runs and RR was restricted to 139 with Pat Cummins’ Hyderabad winning by 36 runs.

What did Sunil Gavaskar say about Parag’s shot selection?

Sunil Gavaskar, who was present in the commentary booth when Riyan Parag walked out, criticized the latter for his temper in a high-octane match. Gavaskar criticized Parag saying that talent alone is not enough to be successful, you also need a strong mindset that can make up the points.

“Really, really? What’s the point of all the talent if you’re not going to think? What kind of shot is that? Seriously. So much talent… if you don’t have the temperament, it’s not going to work. So What if you had some dot balls? You can make up for that.” – said Sunil Gavaskar during the commentary.