Rajasthan Royals batter Riyan Parag keeps on trending on social media for his antics on and off the field. However, his performance with the bat has been disappointing to say the least in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). Perhaps, the man from Assam had tweeted ahead of IPL that his conscience was saying that he will be hitting four sixes in an over at some point in the 2023 edition. But five matches down the line, Parag has returned with the scores of 7, 20, 7 and 5 while he was dropped in one of the games.
Not that Parag has been coming to bat lower down the order. He has been getting constant chances to either bail the team out of trouble or capitalise on the set platform. But in both aspects, the cricketer has been disappointing. Moreover, the Royals are being criticised as well for carrying the 21-year-old not only in the squad but also in the playing XI constantly since 2019 season.
Interestingly, Riyan Parag's salary in IPL 2023 has been more than a lot of uncapped Indian cricketers. He was first picked by the Royals back in IPL 2019 auction for his base price of INR 20 lakh. But then his stocks seemed to have increased in IPL 2022 mega auction. The youngster from Assam raked in bids from CSK and GT as well apart from RR. He eventually went to the Royals for a whopping amount of INR 3.8 crore.
The amount is huge given his IPL career so far. Riyan Parag has played 51 matches in the cash-rich league mustering only 561 runs at an average of 16.03 and a strike rate of 123.57. He only has a couple of fifties to show for himself and has hit 42 fours and 24 sixes. With time running out for Parag, he will have to step up soon before getting dropped for a longer period of time.
