Rajasthan Royals Captain Riyan Parag Makes Big Appeal To Vaibhav Sooryavanshi Ahead Of IPL 2026

Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag on Thursday said Indian batting prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi should be allowed to enjoy his game without taking any additional pressure in and out of the field. Parag indicated that Sooryavanshi will pair up with India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal in the IPL beginning March 28 and said the 14-year-old should be given his space and time to continue developing in his game without any outside pressure.

“As a captain my message to him would be to not do a lot of press conferences or follow a lot of media,” Parag told reporters during a pre-season press conference.

“Let him just enjoy, which I will request you (media) as well. Do not reach out to his manager or anyone; just let him be. He’s a 15-16 (14) year-old kid, let him play cricket. He’s playing really well and he’s going to make the country proud.” Parag said Sooryavanshi will be given the licence to go all-out from the beginning and his senior partner Jaiswal is well equipped to soak the pressure.

“Of course he will have some pressure coming his way but I am going to tell him that whatever pressure is going to be there, Jaiswal will handle it as he is good enough to handle that role,” Parag said.

“My only message for Vaibhav is to go out and play. If the first ball is meant to be hit, hit it. There’s no issue in that.” “I don’t think any young player has done what he has over the last one year. He is scoring runs everywhere,” Parag added.

Meanwhile, head coach Kumar Sangakkara said he is not too concerned with the Royals not having any member of the Indian side which won the T20 World Cup earlier this month.

“It is what it is. India played amazingly well in the World Cup. I am more interested in the players that we have, rather than the players we don’t have. For me, looking at my squad, there are certainly enough good Indian players, who probably played in both World Cup sides,” he said.

Sangakkara said RR have tried to find more flexibility in the side from the last edition.

“We had to upscale our side in terms a little bit of batting depth, in terms of local spin, in terms of our all-rounders, (and) in terms of more options that we have in the bowling department so that we can also rejig the batting line-up,” he said.

In a pre-season trade, Rajasthan Royals saw their regular skipper Sanju Samson leaving after a 11-year stint with the team for Chennai Super Kings and Ravindra Jadeja coming on board.

“With the trades that we’ve done, with some of the auction buys, we have managed to address the local spin department so that we can then start looking at different options in terms of overseas batters and bowlers and that gives us a little bit more flexibility,” Sangakkara said.

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