Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
Former India spinner Amit Mishra has criticised Rajasthan Royals' stand-in captain Riyan Parag for blaming his teammates Dhruv Jurel and Shimron Hetmyer for not showing enough intent while batting against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) spinners in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 match. At the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, RR registered an 11-run defeat against the home side. Chasing a mammoth target of 206, RR could score 194/9 in their 20 overs. Their middle-order batters Jurel and Hetmyer struggled to be swift while batting. Jurel scored 47 off 34 while the West Indies batter could score only 11 off eight. This was Rajasthan's seventh loss in the marquee T20 tournament.
After the match, when Parag came out for the post-match presentation, he said Jurel and Hetmyer didn’t show intent against RCB spinners Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma. "We did really well with the ball. I thought it was a 210-215 wicket, we held them back really well. Halfway through our innings we were in the driver's seat. We've got ourselves to blame. Didn't show enough intent against spinners," said Parag following the game.
Amit Mishra berates Parag for his remark
RR's stand-in skipper, Parag’s comment displeased Amit Mishra as the India spinner said that the batting all-rounder should blame himself for his shot selection in pressure situations before putting the responsibility of defeat on teammates. "You had the match in your grasp but the extra runs that you gave... if you take out the 14 wides that they bowled, they would have won," said Mishra on Cricbuzz.
"You yourself made a mistake in the crunch situation. How can you blame the others? It's not like you were too far behind the game. You were always in the game. You didn't lose by 40-50 runs. It was a close match. You could have won with an over to spare if you hadn't got out at the wrong time. The kind of shots that you are attempting in a crunch situation, those could have been avoided,” added Mishra.
