Team India and Rajasthan Royals all-rounder Riyan Parag has opened up on the controversial alleged search history that surfaced last year. The Assam-born cricketer has revealed that a discord team member tried to set him up before IPL 2024 and that the search history went viral after the season, given he performed well.
The spin-bowling all-rounder enjoyed his best season of the lot in IPL 2024, accumulating 573 runs in 14 innings at 52.09 as the Royals reached the top four. However, soon after the season an alleged screenshot of the youngster's search history on YouTube went viral with objectionable content in it.
Speaking to a radio station of the UAE, Parag clarified about the screenshot, claiming:
"It got publicized 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. So I went on YouTube to put on 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."
Riyan Parag made his international debut against Zimbabwe
A productive IPL 2024 also ensured that he got a maiden call-up to the national team during the five-game T20I series in Zimbabwe. He also maide his first ODI appearance during the tour of Sri Lanka.
So far, the 23-year-old has featured in 9 T20Is and a solitary ODI.
