Padikkal’s departure could potentially open the door for Parag to slot into his preferred No.4 position.
At 17 years and 152 days, Riyan Parag, in April 2019, became the third-youngest debutant in IPL history.
And then 23 days later, he became the youngest half-centurion in IPL history, smashing a valiant fifty against a strong Delhi attack that included Trent Boult, Axar Patel and Amit Mishra among others.
Young. Exciting. Flamboyant. Charismatic. Supremely talented. Parag had all the ingredients to turn into a superstar.
It felt like the only thing that stood between him and inevitable superstardom was time.
Five years on, however, the Riyan Parag IPL prophecy remains unfulfilled.
Parag is in the midst of one of the most puzzling yet fascinating career arcs in Indian cricket.
In general, most local players fall under a few different categories.
> Players who are consistently decent in domestic cricket but never breakthrough at the IPL level.
> Talented players who do well in domestic cricket, burst into the IPL scene and either make the jump to international cricket or remain solid, reliable IPL performers.
> Players who have an extraordinary purple patch for a limited time, make it to the IPL, impress there, but then fade away and go back to being domestic cricket journeymen — your one/two season wonders.
Parag is almost an outlier in that sense, for he doesn’t fit into any of these categories. He is a domestic behemoth and an IPL regular both, yet he’s struggled to establish himself as a reliable IPL performer.
The stark difference between Parag’s domestic and IPL numbers
Since the start of 2020, 55 Indian batters have scored 500 or more runs in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT). Among them, Parag has scored the most runs (1133), maintained the best average (66.65) and has the second-best strike rate (162.6).