Riyan Parag: After failing in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season for Rajasthan Royals and in Emerging Asia Cup, Riyan Parag finally shut the critics by bagging the player of the tournament award in the recently concluded Deodhar Trophy. Playing for East Zone, Parag scored a scintillating 95 in the final against South Zone and almost pulled off an improbable run chase of 329. Alas, that was not enough, as East Zone fell short by 45 runs.
However, RR fans had something to rejoice as Parag lived up to his huge promise. Parag finished the tournament with 354 runs in five matches, scoring two hundreds at an average of 88.50. Heading into Deodhar Trophy, the right-hand batter was not in the best of forms and was facing backlash from netizens for taking everything for granted. The RR youngster, though believed in himself and kept trusting the process.
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Riyan Parag: Parag shines bright for East Zone, says hard work finally pays off
For the uninitiated, Parag scored only 78 runs in seven matches in IPL 2023 season. RR kept backing him, but he could not get going in the finisher role. Netizens came hard at him, and there were reports that the 22-year-old got into the RR team just because of political connections. However, Parag said those rumors were untrue and said he does not take anything for granted.
“What hurts me the most is that people think I take it for granted, I have some connections or sources, and that’s absolutely HORSE**, I told you about my journey. People from Assam haven’t played at the IPL level, I’m going to play a lot more. I do not take anything for granted, I have the craziest work ethic you can ask people who are close to me. All that goes unnoticed because I don’t brag about it on social media. You can have all the assumptions if you don’t want to know me,” Parag told Cricket.com in an interaction.
“I do not care. I definitely do not care about what people think about me. I’m going to play cricket the way I started playing cricket, that was me having ** tons of fun. I want to play cricket the way I want to play. Performances for me don’t really matter, as long as I’m having fun and can stay calm, I think it is sorted, man,” said Parag.
With IPL mini-auction taking place in December, Parag has certainly, reminded RR fans of his match-winning abilities.
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