Riyan Parag made his first appearance for India in their winning series against Zimbabwe. He said it meant a lot to start playing with Abhishek Sharma, who he knew from the under-19 team. Parag had good things to say about how Shubman Gill led the team in the five games they played. In the last T20I match in Harare, Mukesh Kumar did well getting four players out. Sanju Samson also helped by scoring over 50 runs. This led India to win by 42 runs making the final score of the series 4-1 in India’s favor.
Parag said everyone “woke up” after they lost the first game. He and Abhishek, who played together in the 2018 U-19 World Cup, opened their jerseys at the same time. “We opened our jerseys together. I went to his room, he opened it first, and then I did. We played the 2018 World Cup together and for the next 6 years we didn’t play now we are playing. To do it with him was cool,” Parag said.
Parag also talked about teaming up with his Rajasthan Royals (RR) buddy Sanju Samson. He said they chatted about joining forces like they used to for RR. “When we had wickets left at the end, we could go all out. It was a tricky pitch, but I’m happy we did well,” he added.
Playing with Gill as the boss was a good thing for Parag. “He’s always been like a captain even when he wasn’t one. On the field, he’s been amazing,” Parag said.
Even though Parag didn’t have a great start getting 24 runs in two innings and no wickets, he stayed positive about how he played. In IPL 2024, he had gotten 573 runs in 16 games for RR.
In the last game, Zimbabwe won the coin flip and decided to bowl first. India was in trouble at 40/3, but Samson (58 from 45 balls) and Parag (22 from 24 balls) teamed up to score 65 runs together. Shivam Dube chipped in with a quick 26 from 12 balls helping India to reach 167/6 in 20 overs. Zimbabwe’s Blessing Muzarabani had the best bowling figures taking 2/19. Richard Ngarva, Sikandar Raza, and Brandon Mavuta each grabbed one wicket for their team.
Zimbabwe got off to a good start but then things went south after Dube (2/25) bowled well and Sikandar Raza got run out. This changed the whole game. Dion Myers (34 off 32 balls), Tadiwanashe Marumani (27 off 24 balls), and Faraz Akram (27 off 13 balls) tried their best, but Mukesh Kumar’s 4/22 knocked Zimbabwe out for 125 runs. India won by 42 runs.
Shivam Dube got the ‘Player of the Match’ award for doing well with both bat and ball. Washington Sundar, who scored 28 runs and took eight wickets in the series, got the ‘Player of the Series’ award.