'Why the hell is he in the team?': Riyan Parag ripped apart for 12-ball 15; Ravi Shastri's verdict breathes fire

Yesterday evening for a wonderful chance for Riyan Parag to show just how capable a batter he is in the IPL 2023. The 21-year-old, who in the past has claimed that he can be a finisher like MS Dhoni, had the stage set for him to get Rajasthan Royals over the line in their chase of 155, but not only did Parag fail to get the team over the line, his innings of 15 not out of 12 balls at a strike-rate of 125 left fans infuriated.

Parag is not a fan favourite. As a matter of fact, some of his shenanigans have not gone down well with the public and experts alike. Still, his batting has long longed for an opportunity, which finally arrived on Wednesday evening, but like the previous so many instances, he could not make it count as RR lost to Lucknow Super Giants by 10 runs. And as a result of it, Parag was lambasted by users on Twitter.

Here are some of the tweets:

Parag's knock was criticised by former India coach Ravi Shastri, who said that his innings killed whatever chances RR had. Coming in to bat at No. 6 in a tense chase after RR had lost their top order, Parag struggled big time, scoring just 4 runs in the first 8 balls he faced. His partner at the other end, Devdutt Padikkal too failed to get going and their collective failures led to Rajasthan's downfall. Parag struck one four and a six but it all went in vain.

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"They lost [Sanju] Samson, they lost [Jos] Buttler and [Yashasvi] Jaiswal but still they had enough, a lot of depth. I think that period of play when Riyan Parag came in and the way he played his first eight balls changed the course of the match. Padikkal, at the other end, lost his rhythm as well. Runs started coming in singles and there was a period of 28 balls that stage without a boundary. When you go through that much time without a boundary, you are asking for trouble," Shastri told Star Sports after the match.

"They knew what they were chasing. Luckily, they are on top of the table and they will learn a lot from this defeat. They will learn about the changes in their batting unit. Parag was given the responsibility, they watched how he played. They had such a strong batting line-up. They could have gone for the kill much earlier."