5 young batters who impressed in Deodhar Trophy 2023 ft. Riyan Parag
The Deodhar Trophy marked a grand return to the Indian domestic calendar after a brief hiatus induced by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The 2023 edition also featured the zonal format, which was last used in 2014.
Team India are renowned for their depth and it is necessary for such premier domestic white-ball competitions to be held, to not only keep the bench players in check but to also unearth new talent.
A total of six teams participated Central Zone, East Zone, North Zone, North East Zone, South Zone, and West Zone. South Zone and East Zone made it to the final after claiming 20 and 16 points, respectively.
South Zone led by Mayank Agarwal, were undefeated over the course of six matches and won the tournament staged in Puducherry entirely.
On that note, let us take a look at 5 young batters who impressed in Deodhar Trophy.
#5 Kumar Kushagra - East Zone
The East Zone batter, hailing from Jharkhand, scored 227 runs in five innings at an average of 56.75. The 18-year-old also scored three fifties in the tournament, including one in the final.
Kumar Kushagra did not have much of an opportunity to showcase during the Duleep Trophy, but more than made up for it in the white-ball Deodhar trophy. He holds a decent average in List-A cricket.
The right-handed batter first came into prominence by becoming only the youngest player to score 250 runs in an innings. He achieved the feat as a 17-year-old in 2022, during a Ranju Trophy encounter against Nagaland.
#4 Sai Sudharshan - South Zone
The youngster has now become a household name after his exploits in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Emerging Asia Cup in Sri Lanka recently. The left-handed batter also had an eventful Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) season.
Representing the South Zone, Sai Sudharshan compiled 204 runs in just three innings, including a mighty unbeaten hundred against the Central Zone. He scored his runs with a strike rate of 91.47 and had a batting average in excess of 100.
Sudharshan scored 362 runs in eight innings in the 2023 IPL for the Gujarat Titans (GT), including a brilliant 96 in the final against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
#3 Yash Dubey - Central Zone
The Central Zone batter was at his consistent best during the Deodhar Trophy, scoring 293 runs in five innings at an average of 58.60.
He was arguably the backbone of his team's batting unit, but only one of his knocks resulted in a win. The 24-year-old notched three fifties in the tournament as well.
Yash Dubey came into the tournament on the back of some good red-ball form. He scored a hundred in the Irani Cup against the Rest of India outfit in Gwalior. The right-handed batter played a lone innings as the rest of the team crumbled and lost the match by a mammoth 238-run margin.
#2 Harvik Desai - West Zone
The West Zone batter was the tournament's fourth-highest run scorer. He finished with 301 runs in five matches, as his team narrowly missed out on the chance to feature in the final.
Harvik Desai scored 92 in a must-win game for the West Zone against eventual finalists East Zone. Chasing 320, for a potential spot in the final, the wicketkeeper-batter played a lone hand, with the second-highest score in the team being just 18.
Apart from that, he also scored three more 50-plus knocks to seal a formidable individual campaign.
#1 Riyan Parag - East Zone
The all-rounder dazzled one and all with his exceptional batting for the East Zone in the 2023 Deodhar Trophy. He ended up as the leading run-scorer of the tournament with 354 runs in five matches, including two hundreds.
Riyan Parag almost single-handedly led the East Zone to the title with his 95-run knock in the final, but he and his team both fell short in the end. The youngster was under immense pressure following yet another below-par IPL campaign despite being given a long rope by Rajasthan Royals (RR).
The 21-year-old also made an impression with the ball, claiming 11 wickets in the 2023 Deodhar Trophy.
Will any of the aforementioned batters be able to stake a claim in the Team India setup on the back of a solid Deodhar Trophy campaign? Let us know what you think.