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Riyan Parag – ‘I will play for India. I don’t care when’

Riyan Parag is confident of representing India sometime in the future. The 22-year-old is coming off an impressive season with Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2024, where he scored 573 runs at an average of 52.09 and a strike rate of 149.21.

“At some point, you’re going to have to take me, right? So that’s my belief, I’m going to play for India,” Parag was quoted as saying. The PTI. “I don’t care when. [Even] while I’m not scoring runs – I mean this by [earlier] interview and that I will play for India.

“That’s believing in me. It’s not that I’m arrogant. That’s what I planned with my father. [former Railways and Assam player Parag Das], when I started playing cricket when I was 10 years old. We were going to play for India no matter what.”

India will travel to Zimbabwe after their T20 World Cup campaign to play five T20Is, and Parag could be among the players to find a place in the squad. His focus, right now, is getting there.

“Whether it’s the next tour, whether it’s the tour in six months, whether it’s the tour in one year… I really don’t put my mind back if I have to play,” said Parag. “That’s the selector’s job, that’s other people’s job.”

Parag entered this IPL after failing to reach 200 runs in the last five seasons. But his promotion from the lower order to No.4, the place where he fought for his country, Assam, provided a point of familiarity from which to raise.

“I’m still dealing with it. I went home and I was very sad. The night after the game, it didn’t sink in. But the day after the game and before the final, it was tough.”

Parag in RR’s loss in Eliminator

“What you saw this year in the IPL is the way I play domestic cricket,” said Parag. “I take my yoke upon myself, I take the expectations, I take my responsibility to do it and that’s why I play the best.

“I wasn’t doing that in the IPL. I was taking a lot of pressure, keeping my expectations very high and not doing the basics well. That’s what I felt I had to do this year; play at a place that I love. Also, No 4. I was saying, OK, ‘I do this in domestic cricket, this same thing I will do in IPL and let’s see how it goes’.

“I have had difficult seasons, more than good ones and I always feel that I believe in you, that you are actually of this level, that you can actually do the things that you have. [had] what you dreamed, has always been and will always be.”

RR won eight of their first nine games this season but then went on a five-game losing streak and ended their campaign with a loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator, one that Parag admitted was disappointing.

“I’m still dealing with it. I came home and I’m sad,” he said. “The night after the game, it didn’t sink in. But the day after the game and before the final, it was tough.

“It’s difficult, but that’s how cricket goes, there are world-class teams playing this tournament, world-class players playing this tournament. [and you can’t always win].”


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