- Parag returning from injury
- 61 runs in six innings, SR 122
- Rajasthan Royals third in table after back-to-back defeats
Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag has been struggling with the bat so far in this season’s IPL, but his batting coach, Vikram Rathour has publicly backed his captain after their defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders.
Parag’s struggles
Parag has struggled in the IPL so far this season, scoring just 61 runs across six innings with a highest of 20. He has faced only 50 balls, striking at 122.
Before this season, Parag had scored a total of 1566 runs at a strike rate of 141.84, with a high score of 95 since his debut in 2019. So there is no doubt he has the ability as his figures suggest.
Rajasthan Royals haven’t struggled up until their last two games. They have beaten Chennai Super Kings, Gujarat Titans, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, before back-to-back defeats to Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders.
“Just a matter of time”
The Rajasthan Royals batting coach also believes in Parag. Speaking after the Royals second loss in a row, to a winless Kolkata Knight Riders, Vikram Rathour said:
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s 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.”
Rathour attributed his lack of runs to his return from a shoulder injury. He continued:
“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 nest, how they are preparing, how they are batting, what is their mindset. He is in a good mind space.
“20-25 runs short” in defeat
Rathour also spoke about their defeat to Kolkata and where he thought it went wrong. After 10 overs, RR were 95-1, but a middle order collapse meant they only reached 155-9. He said:
“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, went on to get 53*) made a difference. I can’t really complain about it. I think it si our batting which should have scored more on that surface”
Rathour also mentioned about his teams approach to playing Varun Chakavarthy, who went for 3-14 from his four overs. Rathour said:
“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 more aggressively and with intent. We should have played to make the runs. That’s one thing we need to sort out.”
Rajasthan Royals will want to get back to winning ways when they take on Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday 22nd in Lucknow.
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