Ahead of his first series with Team India, all-rounder and Rajasthan Royals (RR) star Riyan Parag, who is the first player from his state Assam to be included in the national team, said that through his international career for India, he wants to set a roadmap for the people of his state to dream big and play for their country. The first match of the five-match series against Zimbabwe will be played at the Harare Sports Club on July 6. The last T20I will be played at the same venue on July 14, where all five matches will be played.
The team includes only two players from the main squad for the T20 World Cup: Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson. The rest of the players who were part of the T20 World Cup have been rested. Promising young players who have proven themselves in the Indian Premier League and domestic ground in the last 12 months have been called up several times from India.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo ahead of the series, Parag said he feels people from his state limit themselves in thinking big.
“I would like to change that. I am not there yet (international player). I want to play for the country. Once I get there, people will realise that they have a path, a road map made by one of their own people. Now I have played in the IPL and people have realised that even if you are from a small state like Assam, you can reach that level. But the thing is that IPL cannot be such a big goal. You can play for a year and then fade away. But when I play for the country, when I play for the country, I think then the real road map will be decided. They don’t really have to follow it. They can make their own versions of it.”
On his successful IPL season this year, Parag said that during the 2023 season, head coach and director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara had asked him to come back and work hard to perform well and that three poor IPL seasons made him doubt himself.
He further added, “But over the last several years I’ve always been trying to find solutions and fix it on my own, so I wasn’t really talking to anybody. I was just trying to figure out what went wrong.”
He said, “Why was I getting so much hate? Why was I getting negative energy from everyone except the Royals? I tried to understand my game. And once I started doing that, I suddenly fell in love with cricket. I was never a big cricket fanatic, but today I love watching videos, analysing my game, comparing certain elements of my batting with someone who does certain things better, and learning from that.”
Talking about batting at number four throughout the season, Parag said he does not feel he is doing justice to himself at number six and seven, but he is also not making excuses for his poor performance in the lower order.
He said, “It was only after the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy that I knew that I will be batting at number four in the IPL. I was batting there for Assam, so I knew how I had to play, whether 2 off 0 or 2 off 100. So yes, accepting number 4 was very easy, but then going out there and implementing it and getting results from it – that is the difference.”
After years of poor performances in the lower order, Riyan was promoted to number four by the Rajasthan Royals (RR) management this season, and he repaid them by scoring 573 runs in 16 matches at an average of 52.09, a strike rate of over 149 and four half-centuries. His best score was 84*. His consistent batting was one of the major reasons behind RR reaching the playoffs.
The feat came after his impressive performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he scored 510 runs in 10 matches at an average of 85.00 and a strike rate of 182.79, including seven half-centuries. His best score was 76*.
Talking about the work he did to achieve his success in the IPL, Parag said that he worked out of his comfort zone.
He further added, “I went to the Rajasthan Royals Academy right after the (2023) IPL. It’s very hot there, 45 degrees or something, and I used to do three sessions every day for a month. It takes a lot of dedication to go there, because it’s a tough place, tough conditions, but then you just have to get the job done, right? It has to come from within. That’s what helped me, because I wanted to improve. I wanted to know more about my game, I wanted to plan for different scenarios.”
“Because I have been lost inside 22 yards so many times. I don’t have options of what to do in certain situations. I think once you go through all those steps, you understand that you should have at least two to three options for every single ball. And for that, you need to practice. Those practices take a lot of time, but eventually, when you do it for a consistent period, I think it works pretty well,” he concluded.
Parag said he took some tough decisions to make a comeback in order to stay at the top level of his fitness.
“Food is a big factor. I love to eat, but I can’t eat what I want. Sleep is another factor. I can’t go out or stay up late. These are the normal things I’m working on to make myself better. These are choices, but good choices for me,” he said.
Talking about his newfound maturity and improved batting form in the IPL, Parag said it was possible because of the pain.
He said, “IPL is watched by millions of people. When I don’t perform well, I feel very bad. And people exaggerate it. The opinion of the fans also exaggerates it. The opinion of the great players also exaggerates it. So I just had to figure out what really matters. Once I did that, I think it worked out well. Me not performing well, me being unhappy, me being dropped from the team, me being abused by people, me coming back home, knowing that my parents are expecting something even if they haven’t said so – I think that was painful. I didn’t tell anyone. And I think that’s how you mature.”
“It’s not an age thing. It’s a pain thing. And it was only after going through all of that that I realised, ‘OK, I can’t go through all of this. I’m going out there performing.’ Everyone has high expectations of me, but I had to figure out what expectations work for me. The last year has been about dealing with all of that,” he concluded.
Parag said he decided to shut out all noise regarding online trolling and abuse last year as he realised he can’t change anyone’s opinion about him.
“And the way I see life, no one else is going to see it that way. If I see something happening to a person, but if I don’t know what they’re going through, I don’t really share my opinion on it. But not everyone sees it that way. Social media nowadays, even if you try to avoid it, you honestly can’t avoid it. Because if you open Instagram, all you’ll see is something like this. You can scroll past it, but there’ll be thousands of other posts. So you can’t really see it. So I thought I might as well not open Instagram because I don’t need to.”
He said, “It’s not easy. But then, after last year, I spoke to myself. And this kind of comeback is personal because I had to endure things that I didn’t really deserve. Maybe my preparation was lacking, maybe I was weak in some things, but still I have always given my best. I felt I didn’t deserve so much trolling, but what could I do? People will say something without caring. Last year they said I wasn’t good enough to play in the IPL. Now they want me in the Indian team. So people change, just like a switch.”
Parag credited Sangakkara for making things easier for him as he was easy to approach.
He said, “I would always go up to him, talk about cricket, life, golf and a lot of things. It has been really great working with him over the last three-four years. He is very open to suggestions. He is very keen to know how you are developing your game even beyond the IPL, for those ten months when no one is watching you. He still keeps an eye on you, what you are doing, how you are playing. It has been great working with him. He is a legend, but then he is a great human being as well.”
On his relationship with RR skipper Sanju Samson, Parag said that both of them are very close and have come even closer since he asked Parag to be a part of the leadership group during the games.
“I took care of them, I had to talk to the bowlers, talk about fielding and communicate with them. So I got a lot of time this season, which made me feel really good, because the captain had the confidence in me that I can talk to the bowlers, change the fielding if needed, bowl certain balls in high-pressure situations.”
He said, “I think we have come very close in the last six years. Sanju Bhaiya is one of the best batsmen at the moment. I believe his wicketkeeping does not go unnoticed. You can learn a lot from him on the field – the way he handles himself even when he is angry, the way he handles himself after losing the match, all of that is really commendable. This is how we get confidence from the captain, because you don’t want a captain who just keeps shouting and showing his emotions. He keeps his emotions to himself, talks to everyone in a normal way even after winning or losing the match. I think these things make him a great captain.”
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