Dravid on Parag at No. 3: 'Want to give him as many balls as we possibly can'

After being assigned the finisher's role in his first five seasons, Riyan Parag enjoyed a breakthrough tournament in IPL 2024, batting at No. 4 and topping the run chart for Rajasthan Royals (RR) during their run to the playoffs.

This year, Parag has earned another promotion, up to No. 3, as RR look to maximise the ability of someone that head coach Rahul Dravid has called "one of our best batters". Parag has scores of 4 and 25 in RR's first two games of IPL 2025. On Sunday, against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), he'll have one last opportunity to get a big score on his home ground - it's Guwahati's final match of the season.

"That's the right word to use, that he's promoted," Dravid said. "Look, Riyan 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, however, didn't rule out the prospect of RR being flexible if they need to be. "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.

"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. So that was the thinking, but we can always assess that, and we can always see how it's going. And I think he's quite comfortable, he's more than capable of batting at any position."

Apart from being a key batter, Parag is also standing in for regular captain Sanju Samson, who is yet to fully recover from a finger injury. That has meant Samson's participation has been limited to batting as an impact sub, with Parag taking over the captaincy. The start has been challenging, with RR losing their first two games, but Dravid only has words of encouragement for 23-year-old Parag, whom he had coached at the India Under-19s when Parag was just 16, in 2017.

"Of course, it's unfortunate that Sanju was not able to captain and play for us. But I think in a way it's nice that we were able to give Riyan, our vice-captain, a chance to captain in a few games and give him that exposure and experience as well."Rahul Dravid

"I think he's adapted really well," Dravid said. "It's not easy to captain when the team [Sunrisers Hyderabad (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.

"Even in the game against KKR [Kolkata Knight Riders], 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. As a captain, it's nice for him to get this opportunity till Sanju is able to field again. And he's sharing his thoughts and his ideas. Very clear. He's very solid in that sense.

"So, yeah, very impressive early days. And it's very nice for us as, again, a team that's looking to develop people and players. Of course, it's unfortunate that Sanju was not able to captain and play for us. But I think in a way it's nice that we were able to give Riyan, our vice-captain, a chance to captain in a few games and give him that exposure and experience as well."

RR have looked slightly undercooked with the bat so far. They have adopted the unique approach - which brought them moderate success last year too - of picking only six genuine batters even while batting first, unlike most teams who tend to play an extra batter. One of the reasons for this could be that RR don't have an out-and-out frontline allrounder. But Dravid doesn't believe that is a concern.

"A lot of it in these situations now, with the Impact Player, you actually do get your bowling and batting options with the 12 players," he said. "To be honest, if you look at our last game, we were able to play seven bowling options. We actually had seven bowling options in the playing XI, so we covered in that department.

"With the batting as well, I think we were able to extend our batting using [Wanindu] Hasaranga right up to No. 8, Shimron [Hetmyer] came at eight and then we had Jofra [Archer] bat at No. 9. So, I think there's enough depth. The role with the Impact Players, I think the role of the allrounder now is really diminished.

"Of course, if you have one, it's great, but I don't think it's as much a necessity as it probably used to be in the past. And that is reflected in the way a lot of teams set up their combinations as well."