Mithoo Baruah and Parag Das raised an obedient child. They take pride in the fact that he does what he is told. The funny thing is, for the next few weeks, he will be doing the telling and an entire IPL team will do the doing.Riyan Parag shouldn’t find captaincy too taxing, though he does face the challenge of leading a Rajasthan Royals team that has lost one of its pillars (and gained a rockstar). They are also coming into the 2026 season on the back of a ninth-place finish last year.
“I told him one thing that whenever you play, it doesn’t matter whether you are the captain or not – play like one,” Das said. “If you are not the captain, wherever you are fielding, and if you think some field position needs to be changed, suggest it to the captain, and if the captain listens to you and changes the field, and it leads to a catch, then it means you are fully involved.”
“We involved him in decision-making around the house from a very young age,” Baruah said. She is a former swimmer who once held the national record in 50m freestyle. Parag was first taken to the pool to see if he had his mother’s skills but he didn’t. “A very simple example, if he wanted ice cream, we would tell him why he should have it or shouldn’t have it. If we were buying new curtains, we would ask him if he liked them. I think that helps the child to know what he’s doing.”
Parag’s parents live in an apartment in Guwahati surrounded by their son’s milestones. His awards from the IPL. Pictures of him getting his first India cap. A collage of him in Royals pink. A snapshot of him with Kumar Sangakkara. Baruah is the mastermind behind the décor.
The dining table is flanked by pictures of Parag from when he was barely old enough to hold a bat. In one, he demonstrates his dad’s go-to shot, the back-foot punch. In another, both of them show off the front-foot drive. Having started that early, he convinced former Assam coach Sanath Kumar he was ready for the state side when he was 14. He made his List A and T20 debuts at 15.
“My favourite innings of his is from an Under-13 district tournament,” Das said. “In the semi-final, he scored 157 not out and in the final 125. At that time, the way he used to bat was fully copybook – the way it should be. The final was against Charaideo. All their coaches had asked Riyan’s coaches how to dismiss him. They were told that instead of trying to dismiss him, try restricting his runs. Because it was an Under-13 game, there were no [fielding] restrictions. So from the start, they put all fielders on the boundary line. Despite that, the knock he played, of 125, was very solid.”
Mithoo Baruah and Parag Das at their home•ESPNcricinfo Ltd
This IPL comes at a time when Parag hasn’t been able to keep himself on the field. Fixing a shoulder injury had to take precedence. He got fit in time to be part of an India A team that took part in the T20 World Cup warm-up matches. Parag last played for India in October 2024. He is peripheral to their plans. On social media, he is a target of trolls. At Royals, it is different.
They gave him his first cap when he was 17. Back then, he was batting down the order, but in time, his performances convinced the franchise to expand his role. Parag was handed the No. 4 spot in 2024. He was being trusted to dictate the flow of the innings, not just finish them. In 2025, occasionally captaining in place of the injured Sanju Samson, he finished as Royals’ second-highest run-getter. But his 393 at a strike rate of 166.52 was a considerable way off his own team-mates’ best efforts – Yashasvi Jaiswal made 559 – and the league’s best – Sai Sudharsan with 759.
Das had experienced situations like that during his own cricketing career. “I was satisfied with 50, 70,” he said. “I don’t remember the last time I batted after lunch. That was my mindset.” He didn’t want it to be his son’s, so when little Parag said he wanted to pursue the game, he was told he needed to do everything it took to play for India.
Das and Parag had constant check-ins on this, right up until Parag won the Under-19 World Cup with India in 2018. Then the path was set and focus shifted to other challenges. Like where he was from. Assam looks so green from the air. It presents as actual land, without the brick-and-mortar towers that touch the sky and are so common in other places. Projections of its GDP this financial year are dwarfed by estimates of Chennai’s from the last financial year. One is a whole state. The other is a city.
“My seniors would tell me to not keep him here, send him outside. But I was like, why not here? If SS Das, Debasis Mohanty and Sanjay Raul can play from Odisha, we have the same structure. So why not someone from here?”
Parag Das, Riyan’s father
Assam cricket has been around since 1948-49. They have had capable players coming through but not always the infrastructure for them to flourish. The Nehru Stadium in Guwahati hosted Assam’s first international cricket match in 1983 but it was a multi-purpose ground also servicing football. So when the Indian Cricket League popped up in 2007, some of their finest took the opportunity to switch over, including Abu Nechim, who eventually went on to play the IPL for Mumbai Indians.
It took till 2012-13 for Assam to really make a mark in the domestic scene. They beat a Mumbai team with Rohit Sharma and Wasim Jaffer in the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-finals and then went on to be runners-up that season. They have made one Ranji Trophy semi-final in 67 years and 2023-24 was their first time playing a semi-final in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Parag captained them there. He is the first male cricketer from the state to play for India.
“It’s not easy to reach that level for an Assam player,” Das said. “My seniors would tell me to not keep him here, send him outside. But I was like, why not here? If SS Das, Debasis Mohanty and Sanjay Raul can play from Odisha, we have the same structure. So why not someone from here? So I started grooming him and he worked hard accordingly.”
Five minutes in Das and Baruah’s house is enough to see how far their boy has come. For those who might not have this opportunity, there is a billboard at the airport of Parag surrounded by all his Royals team-mates that performs the same function. The ever-increasing status of the IPL, the value of finding success at this level, is starting to be worth good compensation for Indian players who are stuck on the fringes of national selection.
A shoulder injury kept Riyan Parag off the field until recently•PTI
There is pride in Das’ voice when he says his son has risen beyond the reach of his expertise, which might explain why Parag now has the nerve to hit six sixes in six balls. As a boy, he was forbidden from hitting balls in the air.
“When he was young, 10-11, what he needed to play was Under-16s,” Das said. “Those are days games. And in three-day games, you don’t need fours and sixes much. You need a good defence and how to leave the ball. I had taught him to hit the same ball to three places. If you are playing a cover drive, and if you play a proper cover drive, it will go to the cover fielder. If the bat face is a bit closed, it will go between cover and mid-off. If it’s slightly open, then between cover and point. This I taught him when he was a kid. That’s why his runs don’t stop.”
Parag still calls his dad after every match and they still discuss his game and what he could do better. Baruah stays out of the cricket conversations but won’t let up on mothering him. He reports to her about his daily water intake. “Because he is a cricketer, no, and they stand out in the sun for so long.” Baruah said. And he chides her when she isn’t impressed. “Mummy, the umpire won’t let me go whenever I like to get a drink,” Baruah said, channelling her son.
Parag’s focus is now on winning the IPL for Royals. But that doesn’t change the fact that it will be hard to break into a team which has just been crowned T20 world champions after scoring 250 in the final. It will be hard to break into an XI which is effectively a IX with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma desperate for another ODI title. It will be hard to break into the Test team when he is averaging under 35 in first-class cricket. But at 24, he has age on his side. As a batter who also bowls, he brings something different. As captain of an IPL team, particularly if he does well, he will have a stature that can go with his stats.
Whatever happens, to Baruah and Das, Parag is the same boy who has always used his smile to get out of trouble. With some little changes. “I have downloaded a Gen Z dictionary on my phone so that I understand what they speak and I speak to him like that as well,” Baruah said. “And he is like, mummy don’t act smart.” Parag has been able to dodge his parents given all that’s on his plate this week but will struggle to do so on Monday even though it’s match day. “I’ve told him,” Baruah said, “the moment I get to, you know, get hold of you in front of everybody, you’re going to get big hugs and kisses.”
Alagappan Muthu is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
