'We will assess that and address it at his training' - RR head coach Kumar Sangakkara on Riyan Parag’s poor form

The 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 got off to a fabulous start for the Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals. The finalists of the previous season sit in first place at the IPL points table with four wins and two losses in six games.

However, the one inconsistent factor in their squad has been performances of youngster Riyan Parag. On the back of impressive performances in the domestic circuit, all eyes were on the 21-year-old ahead of the IPL. In five matches, Parag has only managed to amass 54 runs to his name.

Reflecting upon the same, Rajasthan Royals’ head coach Kumar Sangakkara came forward to give his take on Riyan Parag’s performances at the IPL 2023. At the post-match press conference, after the game against Lucknow Super Giants, Sangakkara said:

"In that situation (last couple of overs), he can just go out and hit as many sixes as quickly as he can. It’s a very clear plan that Riyan has. We had Dhruv (Jurel) to kind of take care of the pace, and we just needed 2-3 sixes in the middle overs."

We will assess that and address that at his training: Sangakkara

Continuing upon the same, Sangakkara reflected on Riyan Parag’s performance in the training. On the back of consistent poor performances, the former Sri Lanka skipper even admitted that Parag’s form will be addressed in the forthcoming training sessions.

"He’s (Parag) been batting well in the nets. We do back our players quite well, especially when he comes in as an impact sub for us or DDP (Devdutt Padikkal) comes in as an impact substitute, looking at the local talent that we have. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been in good form. We will assess that and address that at his training and see where we get to over the next few games," he added.

In Rajasthan’s last game, Parag added 15* runs to his name in 12 balls during the run chase against Lucknow. Furthermore, this wasn’t the only subpar performance from the 21-year-old at the IPL 2023, as he has previously managed scores of 7(6), 20(12), 7(11), and 5(7).