Riyan Parag to be made permanent Rajasthan Royals' captain? Rahul Dravid drops the biggest hint!!

Rajasthan Royals head coach Rahul Dravid heaped praises on the team's stand-in captain Riyan Parag and backed his captaincy skills despite a poor start to the season. Dravid also spoke about the decision to promote Parag to No. 3 in the batting order.

The former India captain called Riyan Parag as one of the team's best batters and insisted on giving him the maximum no. of balls to make an impact. However, he is open to being flexible in the batting order.

Parag had a breakthrough season for RR while batting at No. 4 last year. He was promoted to that spot after playing the role of a finisher at No. 6 or below for several years since his IPL debut.

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Rahul Dravid breaks silence on Riyan Parag's batting spot

During a chat with ESPNCricinfo, Rahul Dravid termed the decision to bat Riyan Parag at No.3 as his promotion in the batting order. He feels that Parag needs to face the maximum no. of balls since he is one of their best batters.

"That's the right word to use, that he's promoted. Look, Riyan (Parag) is one of our best batters, let's be honest. And we want to give him as many balls as we possibly can. Twenty overs is a very short time, and the more balls Riyan Parag bats for us, the better it is for us as a team," Dravid said.

"But of course, these things we'll keep looking at, we'll keep assessing, we'll keep seeing how it goes. And yeah, we know that Riyan has done really well at No. 4, so it gives us an option," he added.

Dravid spoke about Parag's ability to destroy bowling attacks and feels that he can do that by facing a larger no. of balls. The RR head coach wants to assess Parag's progress at No. 3 as he feels that it can be beneficial for the team.

"But honestly, the move to No. 3 was a positive move to try and give him more time to bat. And we know how destructive a player he is, and if he gets more time, then he can score more runs, and that can benefit the team," mentioned Dravid.

Dravid backs Parag's captaincy

Rahul Dravid also hailed Riyan Parag for taking up captaincy duties in a smooth way. He praised the youngster's calmness in both games while leading his team and backed his decisions as well.

"I think he's adapted really well. It's not easy to captain when the team (SRH is scoring 280 runs on a flat wicket. The first game is probably a tough game to be a captain. But I think the calmness that he showed and the fact that it didn't seem like our team was panicking was really good," Dravid noted.

"Even in the game against KKR, his brave decision to bring himself on [with the ball], realising that the wicket was turning, with two left-handers batting, to bowl the fifth over in the powerplay, was a brave decision and a correct decision. So I think he's been very impressive," he observed.

Riyan Parag's quiet start to IPL 2025

Parag has had a quiet start to this season, which is quite different from that of IPL 2024. He has scored 29 runs in two matches so far at an average of 14.50. While he has tried to be aggressive, he has lost his wickets on both occasions.

Under his leadership, the Rajasthan Royals have lost both their opening matches of the season so far. Currently, RR is the only team, alongside the Mumbai Indians, not to have won any match this season so far.

They will next play CSK at Guwahati, which is also Parag's home ground in domestic cricket. Rajasthan will be aiming to sign off from Guwahati with their first win of the season under Riyan Parag.