Riyan Parag Biography: Record-Breaker Rajasthan Royals Batsmen to Debut in Ind Vs Zim T20 Series 2024, Know Career, Background, and More
Ind Vs Zim 2024 Squad: The new Indian Team has arrived at Harare to play a five-match series against Zimbabwe in the T20 International format. The series opener match is scheduled for 6th July, Saturday, and the final match will take place on 14th July, Sunday. The squad includes young cricketers who have exceptionally displayed their talent in the IPL, with some making their international debut with the series, including Abhishek Sharma, Tushar Deshpande, and Riyan Parag.
The National Cricket Academy (NCA) Chief VVS Laxman is the stand-in head coach for the Ind VS Zim T20 series, with Shubman Gill selected as the Captain, including Dhruv Jurel, Ravi Bishnoi, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana, and Sai Sudarshan, among other players.
Amongst the debutants, Riyan Parag is also a part of the squad and is looking forward to performing well against Zimbabwe. He was the first Assamese to be named to the Indian National Team’s T20I squad for the Zimbabwe tour. Let us know more about his career, stats, background, and more.
Early Life & Cricket Career
Born in 2001, Riyan Parag hails from Assam. Riyan Parag completed his studies at South Point School located in Guwahati, Assam. With a reputed sports family background, Riyan’s father, Parag Das, is a former Assam Ranji cricketer, and his mother, Mithoo Baruaah, is a national record-breaking swimmer. Together, Parag Das and MS Dhoni competed in Railways tournaments in Guwahati and Kharagpur. In 2004, shortly before his debut in India, they even topped their department’s run-charts in the Inter-Railways competition held in Nagpur. They also competed against each other in the Ranji Trophy when Dhoni represented Bihar several years ago.
His mother, Mithoo Barooah, is a former national 50m freestyle record holder who competed for India in the Asian Championships and SAF Games. She won a silver medal in the 50-meter breaststroke at the Asian Age Group Championship in 1985. She set a National Junior record in the 100-meter breaststroke in 1990 and a National record in the 50-meter freestyle in 1993 at the National Games in Pune. In 1991, she competed in the South Asian Federation Games, winning two golds, one silver, and one bronze. Zubeen Garg, a well-known multilingual singer is her cousin.
Riyan Parag Cricket Debut
Riyan began playing cricket at a very young age and was a member of the Assam Under-16 cricket team when he was 12. He debuted for Assam in the Ranji Trophy in 2017 at the age of 16. After a strong domestic performance, he was named to the Indian Under-19 World Cup squad in 2018. As a member of the winning Under-19 World Cup team, he was soon given the opportunity to make his IPL debut.
Riyan Parag Domestic Career
Riyan Parag, 16, made his first-class debut for Assam in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy on November 17, 2017. Before his FC debut, Parag had already played competitively for Assam in the 2016-17 Inter-State Twenty-20 Tournament in 2017. His impressive domestic performances for Assam were quickly noticed, and he was named to the Under-19 World Cup squad that went on to win the trophy. He was named player of the series in the 2023-24 Deodhar Trophy, as well as the highest run-getter and six-hitter in the 2023-24 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Riyan Parag U-19 Career
Riyan Parag was a member of the Indian Under-19 team for two youth test matches against England before competing in the 2018 Under-19 World Cup. Riyan Parag finished the Test series as India’s second-highest run scorer. Riyan also played for India A in the 2017 India Under-19 Challenger Trophy, where he scored the most runs.
Riyan Parag was also named to India’s Under-19 Cricket World Cup squad in 2018. However, Parag was injured during a warm-up match, forcing him to miss the tournament's first two games. Riyan Parag played only two matches in the Under-19 World Cup 2018, scoring only 5 runs. Riyan Parag took two wickets in the semi-final against Pakistan.
Riyan Parag IPL Career
In December 2018, he was purchased by the Rajasthan Royals in the 2019 Indian Premier League player auction for a base price of Rs 20 lakh. During the 2019 Indian Premier League, he became the youngest cricketer ever to score a fifty. He accomplished the feat at the age of 17 years and 175 days, breaking the previous record of 18 years and 169 days, shared by Sanju Samson and Prithvi Shaw.
He was released by the Rajasthan Royals before the mega auction for the 2022 Indian Premier League. In February 2022, he was re-purchased by the Rajasthan Royals in the auction for the 2022 Indian Premier League. In the 2022 Indian Premier League, he took 17 catches, the most of any Indian fielder or non-wicket-keeper in the tournament, and scored a match-winning 56 not out for Rajasthan Royals in a low-scoring thriller against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Riyan Parag was the highest run scorer for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2024 season, ranking third overall on the run-scoring charts and fifth on the six-hitters list with 573 runs and 33 sixes.
Batting Career
| M | Inn | NO | Runs | HS | Avg | BF | SR | 100 | 200 | 50 | 4s | 6s | |
| IPL | 69 | 58 | 10 | 1173 | 84 | 24.44 | 868 | 135.14 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 84 | 60 |
Bowling Career
| M | Inn | B | Runs | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Econ | Avg | SR | 5W | 10W | |
| IPL | 69 | 21 | 175 | 307 | 4 | 1/7 | 1/7 | 10.53 | 76.75 | 43.75 | 0 | 0 |
