Rajasthan Royals’ seasoned campaigner Trent Boult on Sunday picked Riyan Parag and Nandre Burger as the two players in his side who would play a key role in the ongoing IPL season for the 2008 winners. With two consecutive wins under their belt, it will be by Sanju Samson led team will take on struggling Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday, hoping to build on their momentum. With knocks of 43 and 84 not out, Parag has shown his penchant for accumulating runs at a rapid pace, marking a tough shift from someone who would struggle to utilize his talent to someone who seems to have matured.
On the other hand, young South African quick Burger has flourished sharing the new ball with Boult, taking three wickets so far to make a dent on his IPL debut.
“The first experience I had with him (Parag) was a warm-up match here in the bubble when the IPL was based in Mumbai a few years ago. He got 85 off probably 30 balls and I just thought he was the most amazing player Boult recalled while speaking to the media ahead of Royals training.
“Obviously everyone is very happy to see him find some success early in this year’s tournament. He’s always been known as an exciting player to watch, so it’s obviously always very satisfying to see someone go out and to see his game going well,” he said.
“One hundred percent he has a big role to play for us in this tournament,” Boult added.
Boult praised Burger for showing no effort while playing a challenging white-ball tournament like the IPL without much experience.
“Nandre is a guy I’ve only just met but bowls with good pace and skills and comes from South Africa where the conditions are very different,” Boult said.
“He’s stepped up his game and performed really well for us so far, so another guy who should play a big role in our tournament,” he added.
After a successful Test series against England in which he smashed more than 700 runs, Yashasvi Jaiswal is yet to make his presence felt in this IPL. But Boult, for his part, was full of praise for his young teammate.
“He’s a phenomenal player. Obviously I’ve been playing with him for a few years. I don’t want to say last year was his breakthrough season, but he’s had about 15 fantastic months,” Boult said. .
“This man is hungry for runs; he’s desperate to get better. You can see it in the way he trains. He takes the game from the nets straight into the middle. It’s no wonder he’s one of India’s emerging players is.” talents with the bat. A very exciting future lies ahead for him,” Boult added.
Boult, however, rejected any suggestion that Rajasthan Royals would be concerned about the form of opening batsman Jos Buttler, who has struggled to score runs of late.
“Jos Butler is a player whose record speaks for itself. You can’t keep scoring runs every day, but I know he is very keen to contribute and get his tournament started. I don’t think we are anywhere don’t have to worry about that,” Boult said.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians senior spin bowler Piyush Chawla confirmed that the five-time champions are still awaiting word from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) on the status of world No. 1 T20 batsman Suryakumar Yadav.
Suryakumar has been sidelined since January this year as he is stationed at NCA in Bengaluru while he recovers from injuries to his ankle and groin.
“NCA still needs to take care of that and coaches know more about it than us players,” Chawla replied when asked about Suryakumar’s progress.
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