Parag Das has seen it all during his playing days for Assam. From being touted as a potential contender to break into the national side, to being dropped from the Ranji Trophy side for fitness issues before bouncing back for one final Hurrah, and now as a father of a young Riyan Parag, who defied social media trolls to finally come of age and translate his brilliant performances in the domestic circuit to the ongoing Indian Premier League.

While Parag Sr did not have to deal with the hatred on social media during his days, and quite expectedly was disturbed by the abuse on his son, the 22-year-old Riyan has learnt to maturely deal with these online evils and let his bat do the talking.

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On the eve of Rajasthan Royals’ tournament opener against Lucknow Super Giants last weekend, Parag Sr spoke to Riyan and during the course of the conversation asked him about the reasons behind the social media trolling to which Riyan came up with a blunt reply, “Dad there is expectation that’s why there is so much trolling. People want me to succeed and I get that I am failing that’s why I am at the receiving end. The day I will start scoring consistently, these trolls will sing my name.”

“I told him the same thing. They want him to do well. He needs to convert and be consistent,” the former cricketer said in a conversation with The Statesman.

On that day, Parag Sr realised that his son is “mentally tough” and won’t let the outside noise affect his performance in IPL 2024.

“He is mentally very tough. The kind of trolling, criticism, abuse he has received on the social media he has seen it all. We were talking about this one day and I had the answer but I wanted to hear from him,” Parag commented.

In the first match, Riyan came up with a fluent 29-ball 43 against LSG and set the tone of the game with a crucial 90-plus partnership with skipper Sanju Samson.

But his real test came during the second match against Delhi Capitals on Thursday when he had to rebuild the ship after the Royals were precariously placed at 36 for 3, and the Assam boy consumed 20 deliveries for his first 16 before bludgeoning his way to a 45-ball unbeaten 84 that propelled his team to a match-winning 185 for 5.

“It’s the fruit of a lot of practice. I’m a little emotional. I’m witnessing the result of my hard work,” Riyan Parag told the broadcaster during the mid-innings break.

During the post-match presentation, an emotional Riyan credited his mother’s (former national level swimmer Mithoo Baruah) support during his struggle and also opened up about why his opinion of himself never changed throughout these years.

“Emotions are settled. Mom’s here as well. She’s seen the struggle, she’s seen the last four or five years,” he said.

“I know what my opinion is about myself. No matter what anyone says, I don’t let that change. That has never changed regardless of whether I’m performing or not performing. That constant support from myself to myself always helps,” he added.

Promotion in batting order

Riyan’s superb outings in the first couple of matches in Royals’ colours, is an after-effect of his prolific run with the bat across formats in the domestic season.

In the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, he finished as the leading run-getter with 510 runs at a strike rate of 182.79 and also picked 11 wickets. In the Deodhar Trophy, representing East Zone, he notched up 354 runs in five matches, the most in the tournament besides taking 11 scalps. He translated the form to red-ball cricket, amassing 378 runs (inclusive of two centuries) at an average of 75.60 in four outings during the Ranji Trophy.

The one uniformity was that he batted at No.4 for Assam across all formats.

Taking a cue from Assam’s batting order, the Royals think-tank also decided to promote him to the position after a dismal run in the role of a finisher during the previous seasons of the IPL.

“It was a cricketing decision,” Kumar Sangakkara, the director of cricket at RR, said of Parag’s promotion in the batting order. “We looked at how he has performed over the years. It’s a very difficult thing for someone like Riyan, who has an overall game, just to always only get the toughest parts of the game where he has to come in and up the run rate at the death.

At the same time, Sangakkara also expected the youngster to repay ‘that faith’ going forward in the tournament.

“We all felt that he has a much more important role that he can play for us. And the hard work that he did leading up to the season, all the runs he scored at domestic cricket, all played a part in that decision.”

“Riyan, and all the players, of course, have to repay that faith. He’s off to a great start. He just has to keep working on making sure he reads the game well and keep trusting what he can do at No. 4. He’s good against pace and again so that important position of four was ideally suited for him,” Sangakkara said.

Praises Royals’ backing for son

Parag is happy to see that the franchise has backed him, and his son has responded to the faith in him by coming of age in the first couple of games.

“He represents Assam, and truth to be told we don’t generally have that kind of talent that comes from our state in cricket. He has that added pressure to do well for Assam as well. I told him at the start of the season that this is going to be your plus point as well because you have more responsibility. This will carry forward in big matches. He handled it maturely and it helped him,” Parag said.

“The RR has backed him, you don’t see that in the current time with this kind of competition. I kept reminding him why they are backing you? They have seen the talent and potential in you.”

“He was playing at No 6,7. He was not getting the balls. He was hardly getting five or six balls. Even if he is getting 10 overs, then you see the team is already five down and he had to bat with the tail, and keep the scoring rate high as well. In that situation, you get to hit five or six sixes once in a while, and that’s fluke as well. It is all about luck,” Parag Sr explained.