'We Want To Give Him As...': Rahul Dravid Reveals Why Riyan Parag Is Batting At No.3 For Rajasthan Royals In IPL 2025

Riyan Parag has been batting at No. 3 for Rajasthan Royals In IPL 2025 which is different from last year. He had a breakthrough tournament in IPL 2024, batting at No. 4 and scoring 573 runs at an average of 52.09.

Pic credit: X (Twitter)

Riyan Parag, who has led Rajasthan Royals in his team's first two matches IPL 2025, hasn't been able to score big so far. Parag registered scores of 4 and 25 against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively as Rajasthan Royals have lost both matches in the ongoing IPL 2025 season.

Interestingly, Riyan has been batting at No. 3 for Rajasthan Royals In IPL 2025 which is different from last year. He had a breakthrough tournament in IPL 2024, batting at No. 4 and scoring 573 runs at an average of 52.09.  

Ahead of their IPL 2025 match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Rajasthan Royals head coach Rahul Dravid revealed the reason behind Riyan's promotion in the batting order.

"That's the right word to use, that he's promoted. 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 was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

However, Dravid did not rule out the possibility of moving the 23-year-old Parag back down the order in the upcoming games.

"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," the RR head coach said.

"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," he added.

After starting their season with two losses, RR will look to register a win against CSK in Guwahati.