Often treated as brash and over-confident, Riyan Parag seems to be changing the narrative about him with every knock that he is playing.
The right-handed batter scored an unbeaten 84 against Delhi Capitals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Thursday (March 29) and helped his side post 185, what turned out to be a match-winning total at the end.
Riyan's match-winning knock helped him win the Player of the Match (POTM) award and guided the team to a 12-run victory.
The Guwahati-born's magnificent batting display triggered a lot of reaction and Mumbai Indians' batter Suryakumar Yadav also shared his thoughts on a "changed" Riyan Parag.
Suryakumar who is currently undergoing rehab narrated the account of a meeting that he had with the Rajasthan Royals player at the National Cricket Academy (NCA).
"Met a guy at NCA few weeks ago. He came with a slight niggle. Completely focused on his recovery and with great discipline working on his skills. And I was not wrong to tell that to one of the coaches there ‘He is a changed guy’ RIYAN PARAG 2.0 Watch out," Suryakumar posted on 'X'.
Notably, the 22-year-old was involved in two crucial partnerships for Rajasthan on Thursday. He stitched 54 runs for the fourth wicket alongside Ravichandran Ashwin after Delhi reduced Rajasthan to 36/3 in 7.2 overs.
Following the dismissal of Ashwin in the 14th over, Riyan joined hands with Dhruv Jurel and aggregated 52 runs for the fifth wicket to propel the hosts to an impressive total.
The Rajasthan Royals bowlers held their nerve right till the end and restricted the visitors to just 173 in their 20 overs. Rajasthan's next game will be a big challenge for them as they will be travelling to Mumbai to face the five-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on April 1.
