“We opened our jersey together…”: Riyan Parag on making India debut with U19 teammate Abhishek Sharma

Harare [Zimbabwe], July 14 (ANI): Following his side’s series win against Zimbabwe, Indian all-rounder Riyan Parag, who made his international debut in this series, said that it was special making his first appearance in Indian colours along with under-19 teammate Abhishek Sharma and lauded skipper Shubman Gill for his leadership skills throughout the five-match affair.

A fine four-wicket spell by Mukesh Kumar and a half-century by Sanju Samson were the highlights as India defeated Zimbabwe by 42 runs in the fifth and final T20I at Harare to secure the series on Sunday.

Speaking after the game in the post-match presentation, Parag said that everyone “woke up” after a loss in the first game. He also said that he and Abhishek, both teammates from the 2018 U19 World Cup, opened their jerseys from the packaging together when they got it.

“We opened our jerseys together. I went to his room, he opened it first and then I did. We played the 2018 World Cup together and for the next 6 years we did not play, now we are playing. Doing it with him was pretty special,” said Parag.

On his partnership with Rajasthan Royals (RR) teammate Sanju Samson, Parag said that he had a talk with the wicketkeeper-batter about having a partnership like they used to have while batting for RR together at numbers three and four, respectively.

“Once we had wickets in the end, we could go big and it was a tricky wicket, glad we could do well,” he added.

On playing with skipper Gill, Parag said that it was nice playing under Gill, who has been playing with him since he was in under-16 cricket.

“He has been like a captain, even when he was not captain. In the field, he has been exceptional,” he added.

Parag did not have a memorable debut though, coming after scoring 573 runs in 16 matches in the IPL 2024 for RR. He could score just 24 runs in two innings and did not get any wicket.

India has won the series 4-1.

Coming to the match, Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to field first. They had India at 40/3 at one point until a 65-run partnership between Sanju Samson (58 in 45 balls, with a four and four sixes) and Riyan Parag (22 in 24 balls, with a six) and a fine cameo from Shivam Dube (26 in 12 balls, with two fours and two sixes) took India to 167/6 in their 20 overs.

Blessing Muzarbani (2/19) was the pick of the bowlers for Zimbabwe. Richard Ngarva, Sikandar Raza, and Brandon Mavuta also got a wicket each.

In the run-chase, Zimbabwe had a fine start and was in the game for a good amount of time, until Shivam Dube (2/25) delivered a game-changing spell and a quick run-out of Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza. Dion Myers (34 in 32 balls, with four boundaries and a six), Tadiwanashe Marumani (27 in 24 balls, with five fours) and Faraz Akram (27 in 13 balls, with two fours and two sixes) put up a fight for Zimbabwe, but Mukesh Kumar (4/22) cleaned up the tail.

Zimbabwe was bundled out for 125 runs, losing by 42 runs with nine balls left.

Shivam secured the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his all-round performance. Washington Sundar, who scored 28 runs in two innings with the best score of 27 and took eight wickets in the series, was given the ‘Player of the Series’ award.