The teams they cheer for may be different, but all the cricket fans from North East India will have something in common in this season of the IPL. They would all closely monitor the Rajasthan Royals trip. And why not? Riyan Parag, the face of Assam cricket, would represent Rajasthan Royals in its fourth season and this time with a super walk!
Twenty-year-old Riyan had received a bid of Rs 3.8 crore at the auction. That is certainly a lot of money and it also comes with a lot of pressure. But that doesn’t seem to be the case with young Riyan, at least not for now. He has played brilliantly in both exhibition games and it is almost certain that he will play as finisher when the Rajasthan Royals play their campaign opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday.
In the final exhibition game, on behalf of Team Pink, Riyan played a fiery knock to win the match for his team, scoring 88 runs off just 43 balls with a strike rate of over 200!! He was the top scorer of the match. Shimron Hetmyer, who represented Team Blue, had scored 56 runs, but in a losing case.
That’s not all. Riyan also scored a quick-fire 49 runs off 27 balls in the first exhibition game and won the match for Team Pink. DevduttPadikkal (67 runs) had the highest score for Team Pink in that match.
Both exhibition games have only raised expectations for Riyan and all eyes will be on him when he takes to the field on Tuesday.
Selection:
Sanju Samson (c), Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, ShimronHetmyer, DevduttPadikkal, Prasidh Krishna, YuzvendraChahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen,KuldipBaruvoka Yadav, Shubham, Garhwal, Jimmy Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie van der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell
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