Rajasthan Royals (RR), third in the Indian Premier League 2026 standings, looks like it has its house in order. For the most part.
It did go down heavily against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in its previous fixture, but skipper Riyan Parag did well to label the defeat as a mere ‘blip’ and move on. There was nothing to worry about, he said.
Ironically, it could be Parag’s lowly returns, after all, that may have the Royals a tad stressed. In five outings, Parag hasn’t been able to cross 50 runs. His batting average reads 12.25, and he has been taking all of nine balls on average to lose his wicket.
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However, Kumar Sangakkara, RR’s head coach and director of cricket, didn’t seem too worried. “When I am watching Riyan, he’s hitting the ball off the middle. I’ve been through this myself as a cricketer. There are some days when you’re batting well, you’re just not getting the runs. Especially in the middle order in T20s, you’re not looking at long innings. You’re looking at impact,” he said on Saturday ahead of a game against Kolkata Knight Riders here.
It’s difficult to get through an RR presser these days without at least one mention of the sensational Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. Naturally, Sangakkara was asked to react to Sooryavanshi’s golden duck against SRH after scoring 200 runs in the other four games at a strike rate of 266.66.
“You’re allowed to score runs; you’re allowed to fail. It’s part and parcel of cricket. Vaibhav is such an exciting young player. He reads the game really well. He anticipates situations. But the nature of opening batting in T20 cricket, especially now the way the game’s moving, is very much all-out attack. So, sometimes, for a batter like that, less said, the better.”
Published on Apr 18, 2026