Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra shared the Rajasthan Royals (RR) might desperately want to retain Riyan Parag before the IPL 2025 auction. However, he also added that the Assam all-rounder shouldn’t be retained as the fourth capped player for ₹18 crore as well. With 573 runs at a strike rate of 149.21 in 14 innings, Parag was their leading run-getter this season as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “Their top three retentions should be Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal. You can decide one, two and three – it really doesn’t make a difference, because whether you leave out Yashasvi, Sanju or Jos Buttler, they will go for 14 to 15 crores. All three are batters, which includes two Indians. Your top three is set. You need to retain these three. After that, you will have slight problems. You will wish a lot to retain Riyan Parag. However, I won’t agree with Riyan Parag for 18 crores.”

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In the same video, Aakash Chopra also added that the Rajasthan Royals should retain Sandeep Sharma as an uncapped player and reacquire Riyan Parag if he is not retained as well as Yuzvendra Chahal using RTM cards.

“Sandeep Sharma is an uncapped Indian. You can keep him with you for four crores. Then you will be left with two Right To Match cards. You can use one for Riyan Parag and the second for Yuzi Chahal. You will then hope that you somehow get Dhruv Jurel as well because I feel Dhruv Jurel has a great future in this team. He is a gun player. We haven’t yet seen the best of Jurel because he doesn’t get to bat. He gets to bat very low in the batting order but he is a player you want to invest in,” Aakash Chopra concluded.