Rajasthan Royals’ director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara came out in defence of under-fire youngster Riyan Parag who is getting thrashed left, right and center on social media. The youngster, who accounted for 183 runs from 17 matches at a strike rate of 138.64 and one fifty, had been targeted in the past for his ‘attitude.’ But back-to-back games have given enough cannon fodder to netizens for going after this 19-year old. They cited how he disrespected RCB’s Harshal Patel and showed attitude to senior player Ravi Ashwin.
IPL 2022 Final: Riyan Parag Once Again Targetted for ‘Attitude’ On Social Media
Some of them said, Parag thinks he is a king, citing his lone fifty in the entire tournament.
Nonetheless, Sangakkara acknowledged the criticism the youngster is receiving and said that he will make sure that he gets proper grooming when he returns for the next season.
“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.
Furthermore, he said that RR must take lessons from the loss in the final and must not be complacent just for finishing as runners up.
“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.
Earlier Sangakkara had spilled the beans on their auction strategy where he said that 90 percent of their budget was spent on accumulating the playing eleven.
“At the auction table, we spent 90-95% of our purse on putting together our first XI. We worked hard on data to work on the players we wanted.”
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