Batting with Steve Smith was an education in itself, reveals Riyan Parag

Batting with Steve Smith was an education in itself, reveals Riyan Parag

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Riyan Parag has stated that he learnt a lot from Steve Smith and the Aussie also helped him with his inputs of how to leave the ball in red-ball cricket. The Assam all-rounder also added that batting with Smith with 30,000 people watching was a surreal experience, albeit it being tough.

Riyan Parag's ascendancy in the Rajasthan Royals' set-up was accompanied by Steve Smith taking over the captaincy responsibilities from Ajinkya Rahane in the 2019 edition of the Indian Premier League. ParagĀ played a 43-run knock in the company of Smith to takeĀ the Royals over the line against Mumbai Indians after a top-order batting collapse. This effort was enough to earn Smith's praise then whoĀ labelled him as a ā€œquick learnerā€ and claimed that the youngster will ā€œdo well in the futureā€. With the 13th edition now on the verge of being cancelled, Parag stated that batting with Smith was an education in itself.

"Of course, I have had a lot of chats with both Steve and Jos Buttler. They helped me a lot during IPL. When you are batting with someone of Smith's calibre and 30,000 people are watching you, it gets a bit tough. He would advise me to be calm and not think about the pressure.Ā I love the way Steve leaves the ball. You don't just go by the looks of it but you've got to think why does he leave the ball like that," Parag told PTI.

"The bat is hanging out and body and legs are in sync, you see that not many players can leave the ball with their body. It's a difficult art that he has mastered. Luckily, I have imbibed some of it in my Ranji season after talking to him," the Assam cricketer added.

One of the fascinating exhibits of modern-day batting, Smith shoulders arms in the funniest way possible while keeping the LBW out of the equation. Throughout the last Ashes, he played with English bowlers' ego who had some of the nightmares bowling to the former Aussie skipper. Parag stated that the Aussie advised him the more he covers the ball with the body and leaves it, theĀ more the bowler will err on his lines.

"It's just not the bat (shouldering arms). He covers all the stumps while leaving the ball. That was an education for me as he told me how he does it. I tried copying him and tried leaving balls on the off-stump channel with all stumps covered. Steve told me that more I cover the ball with the body and leave it, the bowler will be forced to bowl a few on the pads which is the strength of any batsman. Then he can score runs."

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