Struggling skipper Riyan Parag may appear to be Rajasthan Royals’ weak link in the batting line-up at the moment, but head coach Vikram Rathour has backed him, insisting it is “just a matter of time” before he starts firing.
Parag’s lean run continued as he scored 12 against Kolkata Knight Riders here on Sunday, with the visitors slipping to their second defeat on the trot, losing by four wickets.
“As far as I am concerned, it is just a matter of time. Not everyone scores runs every time. Teams function in such a way that some players stay in form, some stay out of form. There is no doubt that he will come back and win us a few games on his own as a batter,” Rathour was quoted as saying at the post-match press conference.
Parag has managed just
61 runs from six innings at a strike rate of 122, with a highest score of 20.
Rathour partly attributed his lack of runs to his recent return from injury.
“He has a lot of potential. There is nothing going wrong with him. One thing is that he has come back from an injury. He has played less competitive cricket before coming into the IPL. And IPL is a tough tournament. It is not an easy tournament.
“But our assessment is based on how they are playing in the nets, how they are preparing, how they are batting, what their mindset is. He is in a good mind space.”
Sooryavanshi Ready For India Debut?
The 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has been phenomenal this season, providing explosive starts.
Asked if the time is right for his India debut, Rathour said: “There are five selectors for him. They are very capable.
“When they feel the time is right, I am sure he will get into the team. So, forecasting or predicting is not the right thing, I think. Let him play cricket. He is enjoying it. If he keeps playing well, he will get into the Indian team. There is absolutely no doubt.”
On Sunday, however, Sooryavanshi looked relatively restrained on a sluggish Eden surface against KKR spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, scoring 48 off 28 balls — a strike rate of 164-plus, which is well below his average strike rate of over 200 this season.
“We are not really telling him anything or giving him any specific message or asking him to play in any particular way. He is being told to back his instinct, to play the way he wants to play. Today the surface was like this, we thought it was a slow wicket. The adaptability that he showed, I think that is a great sign.”
How RR Collapse Led To Loss
Rathour admitted they were at least 20-25 runs short and that their approach against Varun Chakravarthy proved costly.
From 95/1 at the halfway mark, RR suffered a middle-order collapse and were restricted to 155/9, before KKR chased it down with two balls to spare for their first win after six matches.
“We were short by 20-25 runs, we should have scored somewhere around 175-180, and then dropping Rinku Singh’s catch (when he was on 8) made a difference. I can’t really complain about it (the catch). I think it is our batting which should have scored more on this surface.”
“I think we just went a little defensive against Varun. That was the issue, I think, as a batting unit. We lost the intent against him. We should have played aggressively and with intent. We should have played to make the runs.
“We just went a little defensive against him. That’s one thing we need to sort out,” he said.
(With inputs from Agencies)
