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'Riyan Parag has huge potential. I look forward to grooming him': Sangakkara comes out in support of under-fire RR star
Despite the criticism for his controversial catch celebration, Riyan amassed 183 runs from 17 matches at a strike rate of 138.64, with the best score of 56 against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
As Rajasthan Royals missed out on second Indian Premier League (IPL) in the final hurdle against Gujarat Titans, Riyan Parag came under the radar of netizens on Sunday. The Rajasthan youngster, who was previously criticised for controversial catch celebration, was slammed for not scoring runs in the title showdown at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Parag perished for just 15 and failed to provide a late flourish as Rajasthan ended up scoring 130 for nine in 20 overs. Gujarat, in response, chased down the total in the penultimate over to lift the IPL crown in front of home fans. IPL 2022 Full Coverage
Rajasthan Royals Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara spoke about their season and said the side needs to improve in a lot of areas despite achieving a runners-up finish. "Well, we have got a lot of improving to do in all areas. If you take our batting, we had huge contributions from Jos (Buttler), Sanju, and Shimron Hetymer at the early stages," said the Sri Lanka great in the post-match presser.
"Riyan (Parag) and Devdutt (Padikkal) really played well in patches, but I think in terms of overall performance, we need a little bit more from the support role players as well," he further added.
Sangakkara also backed young Riyan amid the criticism, saying the franchise wants to groom him as a middle-order player moving forward. A gun fielder who can contribute with bat and ball, the Assam player amassed 183 runs from 17 matches at a strike rate of 138.64, with the best score of 56 against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
"I think Riyan Parag, he has got huge amount of potential, and we got to work him into higher batting number by the time we come in next season. I look forward to kind of grooming him to become a more of a kind of a early middle-order player rather than just a death-hitter.
"Because, I think he is so accomplished against spin as well as pace,” the Sri Lankan batting great noted," Sangakkara elaborated.
Rajasthan, who assembled a strong team with clever signings in the February auction, ended the league stage in the second position and defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore in Qualifier-2. Sangakkara said that it was the best and strongest eleven that the franchise played with.
"…but when you take the quality of players that we had, this was the best side and the strongest side (that) we put out on the park," he said.
