WATCH: Riyan Parag reacts to viral YouTube search history controversy for first time; video goes viral

Indian batter Riyan Parag, was involved in a controversy and faced a social media storm after his YouTube search history was accidentally revealed during a live stream after the IPL 2024. The incident went viral, with fans mocking and criticizing him for searching for Bollywood actresses Ananya Panday and Sara Ali Khan in a rather explicit manner. 

Parag, who played a crucial role for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2024, resumed his gaming live streams after the tournament. However, during one of his YouTube streams, he forgot to hide his screen, accidentally exposing his search history. This included searches for "Ananya Panday h*t" and "Sara Ali Khan h*t."

Screenshots of the stream were quickly shared across social media platforms, where he trended for the wrong reasons. After remaining silent for a while, Parag finally addressed the controversy. When asked about the viral incident, he responded, saying, "I am h*tter."

"I finished the IPL, we were in Chennai, finished the match, got on a discord call, with my discord team of streaming and stuff like that, 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," Parag said while in a candid conversation with City1016 Radio station.

"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," the Assam-based cricketer concluded.

Check out the viral video of Riyan Parag response here:

Riyan Parag made his international debut against Zimbabwe in July 2024

Parag had a brilliant IPL 2024, finishing as Rajasthan Royals top run-scorer with 573 runs in 14 innings and tournament's third highest-run getter. Following his impressive IPL season, he made his international debut for India. His T20I debut came against Zimbabwe in July 2024, followed by his ODI debut against Sri Lanka in August 2024.

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The Assam-born has played ten white-ball internationals for India, scoring 106 runs in T20Is at a strike rate of 151.42. Unfortunately, a shoulder injury ruled him out of India's T20I series against South Africa and England. As a result, he was not included in India’s Champions Trophy squad, but he has now been declared fit and recently made his return for the seventh round of the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season.

In the previous Ranji Trophy season, he hammered 378 runs in just six innings at an average of 75.60 and a strike rate of 113.85. He also hit 20 sixes, the most in the competition that season.