Former India player Aakash Chopra has praised Devdutt Padikkal for playing a match-winning knock in the RCB’s IPL 2025 match against the PBKS. He added that the talented batter was left out of the playing combination in the reverse fixture as well. PBKS set RCB a 158-run target where Padikkal smashed 61 runs off 35 deliveries.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “If we talk about RCB’s batting, the biggest takeaway was Devdutt Padikkal. They didn’t play him in the last match because it was a shortened game of 14 overs. So they said they would play an extra bowler and reduce a batter. When a batter was required as everyone was getting out, Manoj Bhandage was sent, and you didn’t send Devdutt Padikkal.”

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“How well is Devdutt playing. Is team ka aaj, bharatiya cricket ka kal, Devdutt Padikkal (This team’s today, Indian cricket’s tomorrow, Devdutt Padikkal). He has come as a devdoot here. His best has always come for his team. He is actually a very, very good player. According to me and Kohli, he was the Player of the Match,” he shared again.

However, Aakash Chopra also praised Virat Kohli for playing a usual meticulous innings in a chase as well.

“Virat Kohli chased as he usually does. No one chases like him. He breaks it down so beautifully that it seems like he is a scientist. He now has 67 fifty-plus scores, which means 59 fifties and eight centuries. No one has more 50-plus scores than him. David Warner had 66, and now he has 67. He was going at almost a run-a-ball for quite some time, but accelerated in the end. I felt this match could have been finished slightly earlier. If they had done that, the net run rate would have improved a little more,” Aakash Chopra concluded.