Batters in the top six who can bowl regularly are becoming increasingly rare in Indian cricket. This is why Parag’s performances stand out. He bowls offspin, legbreak, is working on a carromball under R Ashwin’s guidance at Rajasthan Royals, and is even trying his hand at being ambidextrous with some left-arm orthodox. Parag was also part of the India A squad at the ACC Emerging Teams Cup, where he played a big role with the ball.
Only 21, Parag has already seen some unparalleled highs, like being part of an Under-19 World Cup win in 2018, and some lows like the one at IPL 2023, where he was dropped after a series of indifferent performances. All along, though, Royals have often reiterated their belief in his abilities, and so far this domestic season, he’s shown signs of finally being the package they hoped he would be when they bought him back at the auction for INR 3.8 crore.
He has put that setback behind by beginning the new season with a string of tall scores at the Deodhar Trophy. Kunnummal has had this reputation of playing copy book cricket, but at the Deodhar Trophy, he was the aggressor more often than not at the top of the order with Mayank Agarwal, the captain, happy to play second fiddle.
He put together two hundred-plus and one near-hundred opening stands with Agarwal as South bossed their way through the competition. Kunnummal began with 70 against a competent North attack and then hit the high notes again in the final, where his 107 set the game up. Those runs came off just 75 balls in further signs of him having worked on his big-hitting game, something IPL talent scouts at the venue would’ve done well to take note of.
He’s still very much mid-130s in terms of pace, but is working on upping that a notch. What works in his favour is his relentlessness and accuracy, which helps him work batters over, like he did in the Duleep Trophy by prising out Cheteshwar Pujara, Suryakumar Yadav and Sarfaraz Khan in one spell. Last month, he picked up his first-class career-best. At the Deodhar, he opened the tournament with a dream spell of 5 for 17 to shoot out North Zone for 60.
He only began bowling with a cricket ball from age 18, and the rise over the past six years has been swift. He’s now the spearhead of Karnataka’s pace attack in domestic cricket. Earlier this year, he earned a maiden IPL call-up with Punjab Kings. More compelling performances such as the one in Deodhar may accelerate his journey to a maiden IPL cap and beyond at the very least.
With Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel being the first-choice in the ODI set up, Shahbaz has the chance to gain valuable exposure now in Ireland, where he could potentially earn the T20I cap. Then there’s also the Asian Games and a couple of shadow tours later in the year against South Africa and England Lions. It’s fair to say, this could be a moving season for Shahbaz, who at 28 is slowly beginning to come into his own. He’d be the first to admit, though, that his batting has been a bit of a letdown in the season so far, but he’ll have chances to rectify that anomaly going forward.
Agarwal maintains his drive to perform stems from wanting to derive enjoyment from the game and win games for whichever team he plays for. In largely seamer-friendly conditions, Agarwal struck two combative half-centuries and was the third-highest run-scorer at the Duleep Trophy. He carried on from there to finish the 50-overs competition second on the run-charts behind Parag. His 341 runs in six innings were just 13 behind Parag’s impressive tally.
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
