Rajasthan Royals batter Riyan Parag was at the receiving end of the criticism during the IPL 2023. The 21-year-old Assam-based cricketer had a miserable outing in the last edition of IPL and was brutally trolled by the fans and former cricketers for his flop show. Parag, who made his debut in 2019, could only score 78 runs in 7 matches in IPL 2023 at a strike rate of 118.18. However, Parag is known for his outspoken attitude and in a recent video shared by the RR, he gave a stunning reply to the critics.
The video which was posted by RR on their Twitter, begins with cricket analyst and Joy Bhattacharjya saying, "Rajasthan played with five bowlers, five batters, and Parag." The video then shifts to Parag, who said, "People pay their hard-earned money to come and watch us perform, not play. Us not performing, them hating, I understand."
"But verified accounts, ex-cricketers, commentators, when they are posting about this on social media when they are taking out time to tweet about me, you can just text me. I would honestly just love that, because if anyone can just DM me and say 'Hey, I know this is how you play cricket, but if you do this, you might have a better chance of performing,'" he added.
Parag further stated he was looking to playing against Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2023 but was dropped from the team for both the matches. which utterly disappointed him.
"There were two games I was really looking forward to this year, one was Mumbai, and one was RCB, and I didn't play both. Everything was sorted, I was fully ready, I was preparing very hard before the game," said Parag.
"I was very very disappointed not to go to Bangalore, cause that's a team I love playing against. I look up to Virat so much and sharing the field with him is obviously very big for me. Beating them is a joy for me. But then you have to go back to the hotel, look at yourself in the mirror and say, 'I've been left out," he added.