The 25-year-old Narayan Jagadeesan is a wicketkeeper and a top-order batsman from Tamil Nadu who has occasionally batted in the middle order and played handy cameos. A strike rate of 125.35 and a batting average of 35.10 in T20 cricket is something very few can boast of and the Coimbatore-born lad is one of them. He might come into the Chennai Super Kings Team(CSK) XI replacing one of the Indian batters at the top.
Jagadeesan has played all of his domestic cricket for Tamil Nadu age group teams, Tamil Nadu senior team, the Dindigul Dragons in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) and the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL.
He made his First Class debut for Tamil Nadu as a 20-year-old in the Ranji Trophy and impressed with an unbeaten century. Since then, Jagadeesan has scored 1174 runs in 23 matches at an average of just under 40 with four centuries and four half-centuries under his belt.
He then stepped into List A cricket four months later during a Vijay Hazare Trophy encounter against Uttar Pradesh. Although he scored just 10 runs on debut, he has now scored over 1000 runs in 28 games at an average of 35.96. The youngster has two centuries and five half-centuries in the format at the domestic level.
Jagadeesan has been extremely impressive in the shortest format of the game with 702 runs in 35 matches at an average above 35. His four half-centuries have come while opening the innings as well as floating in the middle order whenever his state skipper Dinesh Karthik opened the innings.
Narayan Jagadeesan made his IPL debut in 2020 for CSK against Royal Challengers Bangalore Team(RCB). His matured knock of 33 runs off 28 balls at No. 4 was one of the highlights of that innings. However, he scored a duck in his only other innings in the tournament.
Jagadeesan’s TNPL success made him a household name in the state and then made him progress to the IPL. His wicket keeping skills are something that will always take the backseat as long as the legendary MS Dhoni takes the gloves for his IPL side. The opener’s flexibility to play in the middle order will aid him to get better opportunities at CSK as a pure batsman.
