Riyan Parag has shown no progress: Ex-India cricketer slams RR youngster after poor IPL 2022 show

1983 World Cup winner Madan Lal tore into young Rajasthan Royals cricketer Riyan Parag after the 20-year-old batter ended another Indian Premier League with a dismal figure despite his franchise reaching the final.

Rajasthan Royals, who reached the final for the first time since winning the inaugural edition in 2008, lost out to champions Gujarat Titans in the title showdown in Ahmedabad and Parag contributed just 15 runs in a one-sided final.

His innings pretty much reflects his poor run in the tournament where he aggregated 183 runs in 17 matches, including a solitary half-century.

In fact, he made headlines for all the wrong reasons, including his gesture of mocking the third umpire after taking a catch and staring at his senior teammate R Ashwin after a miscommunication leading to his run out. His antics earned him no fans but detractors.

71-year-old Lal felt Parag’s IPL performance has been stagnant since he made debut in 2018 amid a lot of promises. In IPL 2019, he managed 160 runs in 7 games, followed by mere 86 runs in 12 matches in 2020. Last season he accumulated unsatisfactory 93 in 11 matches.

“Riyan Parag has played all matches but hasn’t given a single performance. When you talk of him… he is not that big a player who can change the game,” Lal said on Sports Tak. “Until now, all the IPLs that have taken player, and all the players who have taken part, they all have shown improvement and stepped up. But this player (Parag) hasn’t shown any progress given the number of chances he has got.

“The slot at which he plays is very important in T20 cricket. Because that is where you can accelerate and score runs. Now if you can’t score runs from there, your difficulties will only increase.”

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