Without a doubt, the young Indian opener, Devdutt Padikkal has been one of the brightest prospects to emerge out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the last couple of seasons. The elegant southpaw batter plied his trade for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the previous seasons.
The southpaw played 29 games for RCB where he scored 884 runs at an average of 31.57 and a strike rate of 125.03. Roped in for INR 20 Lakhs, Padikkal was the pick of the performers in his debut season. The Karnataka batter was recently featured in the RCB podcast where he shared anecdotes about his first game for them.
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Recalling his IPL debut, Devdutt Padikkal said, “Simon actually came out and told me that you’ll be playing the first game. I wasn’t expecting it to be honest, I thought they might bench me a couple of games before they gave me a spot in the squad. The fact that they immediately put in from the first game gave me so much confidence. They have that trust and belief in me that I can straightaway get into the team and start performing. All you need is confidence from the management and coaches.”
Devdutt Padikkal also ended up being the leading run-getter for RCB in the 13th edition of IPL. However, following an average second-half of the IPL in UAE in 2021, the franchise released him ahead of the IPL 2022 auction. They retained Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, and Mohammed Siraj. He also talked about his first interaction with Kohli under whom he made his IPL debut, Virat Kohli, on the podcast.
Talking about Kohli on the podcast, Virat Kohli said, “The first time I met him was in the ground, during a practice session. I was star struck and was unsure how to go up to him and start talking. I didn’t want to get into small talk because I’m not good at it. So the first thing I asked him is about cricket. I asked what he does when he goes through a bad phase.”
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RCB’s move to not retain Devdutt Padikkal took everyone by surprise, considering he was one of the most consistent run-getter in the team since the last couple of seasons. Since the young Karnataka-born opener is not part of the RCB franchise, he will be expected to get huge sums in the upcoming auction. The mega auction is scheduled to be taking place in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13 respectively.
