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Riyan parag for India (Source: AFP)
Riyan Parag has long been considered as one of the most talented young batters in the country. He has been scoring runs for Assam, too, with decent consistency and has even played 9 T20Is and one ODI for India.
Why has Riyan Parag fallen down the pecking order?
In IPL, he had a breakthrough 2024 season, but apart from that, he has not lived upto those expectations and, as a result, has fallen down in the pecking order compared to his other U19 peers. The likes of Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma and Arshdeep Singh have made a permanent place in the Indian side, while Riyan Parag, despite all the talent, has not been able to reach those heights. So, what exactly has been the problem with Riyan Parag? Let's try to find out.
Riyan Parag has all the shots in the book, and often, when he bats in the middle, he tends to dominate the batters with his wide range. He did that in the recently held three-match unofficial ODIs, where he scored fifties in all the matches with a brilliant strike-rate and looked class apart whenever he was batting in the middle. However, unlike other batters like Shreyas Iyer, Priyansh Arya, and Prabhsimran Singh, Riyan Parag could not convert his promising fifties into a big score, and that has been a constant problem for him.
In the 2025 IPL too, he looked million-dollar in most of the matches he batted. He scored at a good strike rate, but those turned out to be just cute 30s and 20s, and in 14 games, he could score only one fifty. India is a country with truckloads of talent, and there is intense competition for almost all spots at the international level.
Temperament: A missing factor in Riyan Parag's batting
Thus, unless a player gets those big knocks, it becomes very difficult to get noticed. Many batters who are now playing regularly for India in ODI cricket have an average of close to 50 or over that in List A cricket, while Riyan Parag's average is in the early 40s. In 53 List A matches, he has scored five centuries, while in first-class cricket, the average is just 35.87.
Thus, Riyan Parag has done better in white-ball cricket, but his numbers are not extraordinary enough to break down the doors of the Indian team. Despite all this, he is in contention to make it to the ODI and T20I team, and all he needs to do is to notch up some big scores to get a regular place in the Indian white-ball setup.
Thus, Riyan Parag needs to find the right tempo and work on his temperament to get those consistent big scores under his belt. He has scored runs under pressure for Assam and even for RR in IPL 2024, but he tends to get carried away with his stroke-play and ends up making an error. Therefore, for Riyan Parag to take his game to the next level, all he needs is some calmness, to work on his temperament, and to convert his promising starts into big scores.
