Kolkata, Apr 19 (PTI) Struggling Riyan Parag may seem to be Rajasthan Royals’ weak link in the batting unit at the moment, but head coach Vikram Rathour backed the skipper, saying it is “just a matter of time” before he starts firing.
Parag continued his lean run, scoring 12 against Kolkata Knight Riders here on Sunday as the visitors suffered their second loss on the trot, going down by four wickets.
“As far as I am concerned, it is just a matter of time. Not everyone makes runs every time. Teams run in such a way that some 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,” said Rathour in the post-match press conference.
Parag has managed just 61 runs from six innings at a poor strike rate of 122, with a highest of 20.
Rathour attributed his lack of runs partly to his return from an injury.
“He has a lot of potential. There is nothing going wrong with him. One thing is he has come back from an injury. He has played less competitive cricket before getting into IPL. And IPL is a tough tournament. It is not an easy tournament.
But our assessment is how they are playing in the nets, how they are preparing, how they are batting, what is their mindset. He is in a good mind space.” The 15-year-old prodigy Sooryavanshi has been phenomenal this season, providing explosive starts.
Asked if the time is ripe 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 track against KKR spinners Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, scoring 48 off 28 balls — a strike rate of 164-plus which is way below his average strike rate of over 200 this season.
“We are not really telling him anything or giving him any message or asking him to play in any way. He is being told to back his instinct, 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.” Rathour admitted they fell short by at least 20-25 runs 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’re 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 the 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. PTI TAP UNG
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