Assam-born batting all-rounder Riyan Parag has opened up on screenshots of his YouTube serach history involving Bollywood actors Ananya Panday and Sara Ali Khan going viral on social media. Parag who made his T20I debut in Zimbabwe said that the incident took place before the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 but came to the fore around the final of the season.
"I finished the IPL, we were in Chennai, finished the match, got on a Discord call with my streaming team, and it got publicised now, but it happened before the IPL. One of the people in my Discord team tried to set me up before the IPL, but that got taken down very quickly. But then after the IPL, the hype was there, and I had a good season. I came and opened my stream, I didn't have Spotify or Apple Music. Everything was deleted," Parag told City1016 Radio.
Parag said that the issue was blow out of proportion and he did not feel the need to clarify and respond to trolls.
"So I went on YouTube to put on music, and I searched for music. But I didn't know what was happening, but once I did the stream ended, I was like Oh s**t! This happened. It just got blown out of proportion. I didn't think it was good enough a reason for me to go out publicly and clarify everything and no one would understand," the 23-year-old added.
Parag's return after injury
Parag suffered a shoulder injury during the home T20I series against Bangladesh. He was not named in the T20I squad against England which India won 4-1.
On his return to competitive cricket, he scored a half-century while leading leading Assam against Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25. He claimed two wickets as well but Assam lost by an innings and 144 runs to Jaydev Unadkat-led Saurashtra.
Parag's ODI and T20I numbers
Parag made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka last year. He claimed three wickets but scored just 15 runs. The 23-year-old scored 106 runs from six innings in T20Is at an average of 17.66 and strike rate of 151.42. With the ball, he has four wickets in T20Is at an average of 20.75. His economy rate of 6.72 runs per over.