On Sunday, 29 May, Rajasthan Royals' batting all-rounder Riyan Parag had the opportunity of turning around his campaign, if he could finish Rajasthan's innings with a flourish in the IPL 2022 final, as he found himself at the death once again, negotiating Gujarat Titans' top-class bowling attack.
As always, there was no dearth of self belief. Even as Obed McCoy came out to bat at No 9 and smoked a six off his second delivery, Parag had the confidence and the belief to deny him a single in the last over, trusting himself to maximise the final over from Mohammed Shami.
However, all he could do was to hit one boundary before being cleaned up by a searing yorker from the seasoned pacer on the final delivery and finished with 15 runs off as many balls.
This has been more or less the story for Riyan Parag not only throughout IPL 2022 but for most of his IPL career. He has shown glimpses of what he is capable of with a couple of clean strikes, but that's about it.
It is beyond doubt that Parag is an extremely skilled prodigy, who has already achieved things that millions of youngsters can only dream of. At 14, he could have become the youngest player to make his First-Class debut, but the Assam selectors thought him to be 'too young'.
Two years later, the all-rounder displayed his extraordinary talent when he smashed the England under-19 bowlers in a youth Test in Taunton. Next year, he achieved the distinction of being an under-19 World Cup winner.
A year later, in 2019, Parag made his IPL debut. It was this very year that he became the youngest player to score an IPL half century. All this gives one a sense of where the potential chorus is coming from.
Born to former Assam state cricketer Parag Das and national record-holder swimmer Mithu Baruah, Parag has already made a mark in domestic cricket with 952 runs and 21 wickets from 16 First-Class matches. He has also done decently well in List A cricket as an all-rounder with a batting average of 29.07 and a bowling average of 32.23 from 29 outings.
His T20 batting stats though are underwhelming with an average of 23 and a strike rate of 128 from 74 games.
From 47 matches in his IPL career, Riyan Parag has scored 522 runs at an average of 16.84 and a strike rate of 124.88. He has also bowled 157 balls, conceding 280 runs at an economy rate of 10.70 and an average of 70.00, while picking up four wickets.
Parag is an excellent catcher and ground fielder and perhaps deserves his pay cheque only for that since a good fielding display can be the difference between a win and loss in a tight game. He finished with the most catches this season, with 17 pouches from as many games, well ahead of the second-placed Kane Williamson who took just 10.
At the same time, his bowling fell off the radar completely this year, with him having sent down just 24 balls and giving away 59 runs at close to 15 RPO.
Yet, there must be something special about the 20-year-old Assam lad that he went on to play all 17 matches for Rajasthan Royals this season.
It's not only RR though, other franchises also rate Riyan Parag highly. Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings both bid for him at the 2022 mega auction. Interestingly, Gujarat Titans who went on to thump Rajasthan Royals by 7 wickets in the final to lift the IPL trophy in their maiden season, also went up till Rs 3.60 crore before Rajasthan finally got him for Rs 3.80 crore.
While the numbers don't stack up for him, the teams are bidding on potential. But how long can you go on potential before it finally turns into performances? Certainly, one knock of 56 not out off 31 deliveries, match-winning as it was, cannot cut it for the 20-year-old all-rounder.
Parag made 183 runs from 17 outings in IPL 2022 at an average of 16.64 and a strike rate of 138.64 with the help of 11 boundaries and 10 sixes. In fact, the most number of balls he faced in an innings other than during the second half-century of his IPL career was just 16.
That, in itself, is enough to show the high-risk low-reward scenario that Parag walks out to bat in. As per the role assigned to him by the franchise, he has no option but to swing for the ocean from ball one and that requires special skill, composure, and luck for you to succeed time and again.
Ask Dinesh Karthik who has now been trying to do it for years and finally managed to hit the sweet spot this season.
Be that as it may, just one significant knock from 17 outings leaves a lot to be desired. The only other occasions on which Parag managed the score of 15 or more apart from his half-century was 18 off 16 deliveries against Gujarat Titans, 19 off 12 deliveries against Kolkata Knight Riders and 19 off 16 deliveries against Lucknow Super Giants.
Still, there must be something extraordinary about him that some of the sharpest cricketing minds like Kumar Sangakkara are willing to take a punt on the youngster. Even after a disappointing season, Sangakkara dropped hints after the IPL 2022 final that Parag was still very much in the long-term scheme of things of the franchise and they were in fact looking to groom him for the middle order from the next season onwards.
"I think Riyan Parag has got a huge amount of potential, and I think we have got to work him into a higher batting number by the time we come in next session. I look forward to grooming him to become more of a kind of an early middle-order player rather than just a death hitter because I think he is so accomplished against spin as well as pace," said RR director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara.
Amid all the noise, one should not lose sight of the fact that Riyan Parag is in the team to play a certain role, as Virat Kohli spelled it out for him last year:
"Forget the orange cap, you ain't getting it. Your focus should be to get the quick 15-20-25 runs you get at crucial times. Don't think about the volume of runs you get."
Parag seems to have taken the advice to heart. He made 120 runs from 79 deliveries at the death in IPL 2022 at a strike rate of 151.89, but an average of 13.33 still sticks out like a sore thumb.
(Saksham Mishra says he is a failed cricketer-turned-sports writer who justifies hours of watching sports by scribbling down a few logical lines that might just about hold your interest)
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