Image: Riyan Parag clarified the controversy surrounding his YouTube search history / © Mykhel
India’s young all-rounder Riyan Parag recently addressed the controversy surrounding his YouTube search history, which included Bollywood actress Ananya Panday. The incident, which occurred before IPL 2024, resurfaced after he had a successful season with Rajasthan Royals. Parag explained that the issue was blown out of proportion and clarified that he had unknowingly shared his search history while streaming on Discord. However, he chose not to respond to trolls, believing it wasn’t significant enough to justify a public statement. He said:
I finished the IPL, we were in Chennai, finished the match, got on a Discord call with my streaming team, and it got publicized now, but it happened before the IPL. One of the people in my Discord team tried to set me up before the IPL, but that got taken down very quickly. But then after the IPL, the hype was there, and I had a good season. I came and opened my stream, I didn’t have Spotify or Apple Music. Everything was deleted. So I went on YouTube to put on music, and I searched for music. But I didn’t know what was happening, but once I did the stream ended, I was like Oh s**t! This happened. It just got blown out of proportion. I didn’t think it was good enough a reason for me to go out publicly and clarify everything and no one would understand.
Parag, who made his T20I debut against Zimbabwe, sustained a shoulder injury during India’s home series against Bangladesh, ruling him out of the England T20I series. In his return to domestic cricket, he led Assam in the Ranji Trophy, scoring a half-century and taking two wickets against Saurashtra. Despite his efforts, Assam suffered a heavy defeat by an innings and 144 runs.
In international cricket, Parag has played six T20Is, scoring 106 runs at an average of 17.66 with a strike rate of 151.42. He has also taken four wickets at an average of 20.75, maintaining an economy rate of 6.72. In ODIs, he debuted against Sri Lanka, claiming three wickets but managing only 15 runs.