The ongoing Indian Premier League’s (IPL) ceremonial dance bandwagon moves to another city as the Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati will be the latest venue for another pre-match performance with Bollywood actress Sara Ali Khan set to perform ahead of the Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings (CSK) clash on March 30.
This is the first edition of the tournament where each venue will have an opening ceremony, unlike the previous when only the first game of the season hosted such performances.
With the news of Sara Ali Khan performing at Rajasthan Royals’ second home ground, quick-witted social media users wasted no time in trolling stand-in-skipper Riyan Parag. Notably, the 23-year-old hails from Assam.
Riyan Parag-Sara Ali Khan ‘incident’
So, why is Riyan Parag the butt of jokes on the back of this announcement? The incident in question dates back to before the start of the IPL 2024 season. During a livestream, an inappropriate search query related to Sara Ali Khan and her fellow actress Ananya Pandey on Riyan Parag’s phone was broadcast to the whole world inadvertently, causing huge embarrassment to the Assamese cricketer.
As the memes started piling on him, he chose to keep mum until recently, stating, “I finished the IPL, we were in Chennai, finished the match, got on a Discord call with my streaming team, and it got publicised 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.”
Now with confirmation of Sara Ali Khan’s performance in Guwahati ahead of the CSK game, social media went abuzz once again as users shared their creative takes on the issue.
Let’s take a look at some of the best memes.
Why is Riyan Parag leading RR instead of Sanju Samson?
Riyan Parag was appointed the Rajasthan Royals captain for the first three games after regular skipper Sanju Samson is yet to recover fully from a finger injury he suffered during India’s T20I series against England in February. Sanju Samson will play as a pure batter in the first three games. Notably, the 2008 champions have lost both their games so far – against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders.
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