Rajasthan Royals young cricketer Riyan Parag has been impressive for the team ever since he joined the side in the year 2019. Recently, he impressed one and all with his quickfire cameo against Punjab Kings in Rajasthan Royals’ maiden game of the ongoing IPL 2021.
Riyan scored 25 runs off 11 balls against Punjab Kings, however, failed to take his team to victory as the Sanju Samson-led side failed to chase the total of 222 runs by 4 runs. Recently, in an interview, Riyan revealed the details of his conversation with team India and RCB skipper Virat Kohli from last year.
During the previous edition of the IPL in the UAE, Riyan had a chat with Virat Kohli, where Virat explained why the young cricketer can’t win the Orange Cap in the competition and why he shouldn’t be worried about it. He asked Riyan to focus on scoring crucial 20-30 runs for the team as he bats in the lower-middle order. He revealed:
“No, it doesn’t actually [if not getting a lot of chances to bat matters to him]. I had a chat with Virat Kohli during the last IPL. He specifically told me that ‘you are not going to get the Orange Cap. You bat No. 5 or No. 6 so there is no point in you thinking about the Orange Cap. You just think about how you can get those crucial 20 or 30 runs and when you get the chance to go in at a crucial phase, just think how you can get the team through.’ So that really fit in my mind and now I don’t think about how many runs I’m getting, I just think how my runs are benefiting the team,”
Furthermore, Riyan expressed how working with some of the best in the business in the IPL helps the youngsters. He said:
“Mentally, it has been a big positive impact. When you play for your state, you get to play India’s best players. But when you play IPL, you get to share the dressing room with players like Steve Smith, Ajinkya Rahane, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Jofra Archer. These are top current international cricket players. And then when you come up against people like Virat Kohli or MS Dhoni, it makes you mentally very strong,”
