"I have learnt it the hard way" - Riyan Parag on dealing with trolling and criticism

Riyan Parag has been in superb form for East Zone and is one of the main reasons why they are in the final of the Deodhar Trophy 2023. However, all hasn't been rosy for the all-rounder in his past few IPL seasons.

The youngster has had 2-3 inconsistent seasons with the Rajasthan Royals after a promising debut season back in 2019. Although he has shown flashes of brilliance, Riyan has also been slammed by trolls on social media on his inconsistency.

Speaking to cricket.com, here's what Riyan Parag had to say about the impact of social media trolling:

“I will tell you the truth, I can be a Macho and a cool dude and tell you it doesn’t affect me, but it did affect me. I’m a very self-centred guy, I keep it to myself. I have learnt it the hard way, in 2020, it was the lowest point in my career. I had the most killer season before (2019), I was 17, and I just expressed myself and was on top of the world.”

He further added:

“Once a new kid comes in, who scores a lot of good knocks, you are really the freaking king of the world, that was all well and good. I wasn’t over the moon. Next year when I didn’t perform well, I was like, oh **, people flipped like a switch. In Dubai, I still remember, we were quarantining, and I would just sit watching the beach at 5 AM, gazing at the stars, going, 'What the hell am I actually doing. Why is everything going for a toss?'"

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No point in taking trolls seriously: Riyan Parag

Riyan Parag also revealed that he had gone in a downward spiral where he kept on questioning himself why there was so much hate about him on social media. He then realized that there will be some trolling when he isn't consistent enough and believes it is best to not pay attention to it.

On this, he stated:

“I had a brilliant lockdown in terms of my work ethic and my diet. Why isn’t it working, why are the people trolling me on social media? The same dances that entertained people, why are they hating on it now? The same love for Virat Kohli I showed, why are they backing out now? Then I figured out when I had another bad season that there was no point in reading these things or taking their opinions seriously.”

Riyan Parag will be hopeful of playing another crucial knock and helping East Zone win the Deodhar Trophy.