The Rajasthan Royals are doing exceptionally well in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 so far, sitting pretty in the third position after winning five out of their seven matches.
Riyan Parag has managed to get the best out of his players, and the all-rounder from Assam has been marshalling his troops very well. However, one deterrent to Rajasthan’s chances in the ongoing 19th edition of the T20 tournament is the skipper’s form. The right-handed batter has failed to set the stage on fire, failing on all seven occasions with the bat so far.
The 24-year-old has returned with just 81 runs in seven games at an average of 13.50 and a strike rate of 117.39, with his highest score being 20 against the Lucknow Super Giants. However, ahead of the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday, Parag received backing from his head coach, Kumar Sangakkara.
The former Sri Lanka captain said that Parag is doing everything, and it’s just a matter of one good innings for the young batter.
“I think he’s batting really well. When you’re batting well, sometimes you don’t always score. I would have been concerned if he wasn’t hitting the ball well. I think he’s hitting it really well. He just needs to stitch together a few more runs so that he sets himself a good platform to attack in the end,” Sangakkara told reporters during the pre-match press conference.
“As a player, as a batter, the franchise backs him 100 per cent. And what’s really exciting for me is to see how he has just embraced the captaincy and the leadership. And you can see even in the last game how good a captain he was. So, I think he will learn more and more about pressure, and he will get better,” he added.
‘Aura about him’
Sangakkara also explained the rationale behind the management’s decision to choose Parag as the captain, saying the youngster has shown a willingness to learn and keep getting better with each passing day.
“More than anyone else’s influence, why we chose Riyan as captain is that his learning curve has been steep. He has learned a lot from others, but more importantly, from himself. I’ve never seen a young player under so much pressure from the start of his career in RR. Riyan was, a lot of the time, front and centre in a lot of our social media. He was always put out there,” said Sangakkara.
“Because he was an exciting young cricketer and had this aura about him. A pretty good-looking guy as well. But that also brings with it a lot of pressure. And sometimes it’s unfair to have such a young guy be under that pressure. I think he has learned a lot from those experiences,” he added.