Rajasthan Royals batting coach Vikram Rathour is not overly troubled by Riyan Parag’s lean start to the IPL, even though the Assam batter has produced modest returns across his first eight matches. In a season where the spotlight naturally turns to form and output, Rathour framed Parag’s current numbers as a temporary phase, insisting the right-hander is working properly and will find his rhythm as the tournament unfolds. Parag, who has been a debated captaincy option for the Royals in the presence of regular India stalwarts Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel, has managed just 88 runs in eight games at a strike rate of 112.82, with his highest score sitting at 20.
Speaking to reporters, Rathour made his assessment clear: “There is nothing going wrong with him. He is batting well in the nets. He is working hard.” Rathour, a former India batting coach, pointed to the effort and preparation rather than the scoreboard, suggesting that a batsman can look capable even when runs have not yet arrived in bulk. In the same breath, he underlined that Parag’s quiet spell has not been the defining story of the Royals’ batting, with other batters doing the bulk of the work so far.
So far, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has stood out with 357 runs at a strike rate of 234-plus, while Yashasvi Jaiswal has also carried significant weight with 255 runs at 153. Dhruv Jurel, too, has contributed 232 runs with a strike rate in the 130-plus range. Together, the trio have shouldered much of RR’s batting load in the campaign to date, leaving Parag’s slow accumulation to be viewed more as an adjustment period than a crisis.
Rathour also noted how Parag’s output has fallen behind even other players in the team who are not currently leading the runs race. At the moment, Parag’s figures are even beneath Ravindra Jadeja’s 132 and Donovan Ferreira’s 130, a comparison that underlines just how tough his early phase has been. Yet, Rathour believes the underlying process remains intact, and that the results will eventually catch up.
That belief was echoed by what happened in the game on Saturday, when Parag was undone by a yorker from Sunrisers Hyderabad’s comeback man Pat Cummins. The delivery came in fast and landed at the base of the stumps, and Parag—according to Rathour’s reading of the situation—could not get the bat down in time to execute his shot cleanly. For Rathour, it illustrated the kind of moment that can swing a batter’s confidence, particularly when runs are already hard to come by.
“So that is how this game goes sometimes. You get into a lean phase or a phase where you are not scoring as many runs as you would like to. But that is part of the game, I think. He will come back and he will come back strong. I am pretty sure of that,” Rathour said. He added further context on how the Royals are approaching Parag’s situation internally, describing ongoing attention to his technique and work habits rather than reacting purely to match-by-match output.
“We are having a one-on-one conversation. We had noted Parag’s batting form. We have been talking about it a lot.”
