Bengaluru, Aug 31 (IANS) East Zone captain Riyan Parag said his primary focus in the Duleep Trophy clash against North Zone was to have some fun and get back into the rhythm of competitive cricket after spending much of last season on the sidelines due to a shoulder injury.

Parag last featured for India in a T20I against Bangladesh in October 2024 and had to undergo shoulder surgery before returning to play Ranji Trophy for Assam in January this year. He also turned out for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025, where he was the franchise’s second-highest run-scorer with 393 runs.

“It was good. I mean, that was the main goal when I came here to play the game. Performances, I didn’t really focus on that much. I just wanted to have some fun. I haven’t played competitive cricket in a long time. Since the IPL, I haven’t really played.”

“(In the) IPL also, I was managing a lot of stress and stuff like that. But it was nice, was a good outing. Not in a good way with the amount of overs we fielded. But then still, rolled my arm for a few overs, batted for a while. Could have converted it for a bigger score, but then I’m happy. The shoulder feels much better now,” said Parag to reporters after the game ended in a draw, with North Zone taking first innings lead and sealing an entry into the semi-finals.

With Abhimanyu Easwaran ruled out due to fever on the eve of the game, Parag captained East Zone and made 39 in the team’s only batting innings. He also bowled 22 overs in the second innings as North Zone made 658/4. What also caused Parag to bowl a lot of overs was Mukesh Kumar not bowling further after a hamstring strain while Mohammed Shami didn’t bowl on the final day due to a cut on his toe.

“That was one of the tough things to manage. Shami bhaiya didn’t bowl today, Mukesh got injured in the first innings, I’m coming back from an injury so I had to bowl 20 overs. Utkarsh (Singh), our non-bowler, he had to bowl around 30 overs so that did play a part for us in fielding a lot of overs but then nothing we can do about it. We just take it as a loss.”

“They played better cricket, I got to give credit to that. I feel we could have done better in the first innings while bowling but then we should have got at least close to like 350 and then try to restrict it.”

“But once we did not do that, they had the lead of around 200 runs. Then, just the batters batted really well and just took the game away from us and the last day was just formality, I think, for them to get their milestones,” he added.

With the domestic season now on, Parag, amongst the stand-bys for the upcoming Men’s T20 Asia Cup, said he is hopeful of breaking back into the national set-up for the white-ball series in Australia in October-November, while aiming to make big runs for his state Assam.

“I was in the T20 set-up, then took a break for the shoulder (injury), and stuff like that happened. Ranji (Trophy) is coming in, then the Australia tour is coming in; if I get selected there, I do that. Otherwise, I go back to domestic and do what I’ve been doing for the last two to three years. Be top-scoring every single game. Have a good IPL and play for the country again.”

–IANS

nr/ab