(Cricket News) The young Indian batter, Riyan Parag is confident about featuring for the Indian national side at some point of time in the future. Riyan is coming off a breakout IPL season with the Rajasthan Royals scoring 573 runs at an average of 52.09.
“At some point, you’ll have to take me, right? So that is my belief, I’m going to play for India,” Parag was quoted as saying by PTI. “I don’t really care when. [Even] when I was not scoring runs – I said this in an [earlier] interview as well that I am going to play for India.
“That is me believing in myself. That is not me being arrogant. That is what my plan was with my dad [former Railways and Assam player Parag Das], when I started playing cricket when I was like 10-years old. We were going to play for India regardless of anything.”
Riyan after his consecutive failures at the Indian Premier League, finally tasted success in one of the toughest arena of world cricket. He has had five seasons previously with the Rajasthan Royals where he failed to reach the 200-run mark, but he made no mistakes this time around.
His side, Rajasthan Royals dominated the first leg of the IPL winning 7 out of the first 8 games and his contributions to that was immense. Riyan played some exceptional match winning knocks for his side which also included a valuable 36-run knock under pressure against RCB in the Eliminator.
The Indian side will be travelling to Zimbabwe for a five match T20I series and that can be a wonderful opportunity for Riyan to make it to the big stage for the very first time. He has been one of the most consistent domestic players, playing for his state Assam and now his performances at the IPL level may earn him an India call-up.
“Whether it’s the next tour, whether it’s a tour in six months, whether it’s a tour in one year… I don’t really put my thought behind when I should play,” Riyan Parag said. “That is the selector’s job, that is other people’s job.”
“What you saw this year in the IPL is how I play domestic cricket,” Parag said. “I take the onus up to myself, I take the expectations, I take the burden upon myself to deliver and that is why I play the best.
“I was not doing that in the IPL. I was taking way too much pressure, keeping my expectations way too high and not doing the basic things right. That is what I figured I had to do this year; of playing at my favourite position as well, No 4. I was like, okay, ‘I do this at domestic cricket, this is the same thing I’m going to do in IPL and let’s see how it goes’. It worked out perfectly.
“I had a lot of rough seasons, more than nice ones and I feel having that constant belief in yourself, that you actually belong in this level, that you can actually do things that you [had] dreamt of, has been a constant and that will stay throughout.”
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