Nothing wrong with Riyan’s batting, says Vikram Rathour

Skipper Riyan Parag’s meagre returns in the first eight IPL games are the least of concerns for Vikram Rathour, with the Rajasthan Royals batting coach confident the Assam batter will come good at some stage in the tournament.

Riyan, a debatable choice for the Rajasthan Royals captaincy despite the presence of India regulars Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel, has managed just 88 runs in eight games at a dismal strike-rate of 112.82, with a top score of 20.

“There is nothing going wrong with him. He is batting well in the nets. He is working hard,” Rathour, a former India batting coach, told reporters.

Riyan’s returns pale beside the heavy lifting done by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (357 at a strike-rate of 234-plus), Yashasvi Jaiswal (255 at 153) and Dhruv Jurel (232 at 130-plus), the trio carrying much of RR’s batting load so far.

So wretched has been Riyan’s form that he is even behind Ravindra Jadeja (132) and Donovan Ferreira (130).

On Saturday, Riyan was undone by a yorker from Sunrisers Hyderabad’s comeback man Pat Cummins, who bowled one fast onto the base of the stumps, and the Assam man didn’t have enough technical finesse to bring the bat down in time.

“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.

“We are having a one-on-one conversation. We had noted Parag’s batting form. We have been talking about it a lot.”