The RCB opener Devdutt Padikkal stole the show in game 3 of IPL 2020 last night as he smashed 56 runs off just 42 balls at the top of the order for RCB against Sunrisers Hyderabad to lay a solid platform for his team.
Interestingly, it was the 4th time in Padikkal’s career that he scored a fifty making his debut. Before his IPL debut, Padikkal had already scored a fifty each on his first class debut, on his List-A debut and on his domestic T20 debut back home in India.
Devdutt Padikkal emerged onto the scene less than a year ago
Padikkal made his List-A debut in September last year as he played his first game in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Karnataka against Jharkhand. Opening the innings with KL Rahul, Padikkal stitched a partnership of 75 runs for the first wicket and scored a half-century individually as well. He was eventually dismissed at the score of 58 runs off 83 balls with 7 boundaries.
Later in November, Padikkal got the opportunity to play his first T20 game for Karnataka against Uttarakhand and he showed his class in the first outing again. He didn’t open the batting in this game, but batted at no. 3 and scored 53 runs off 33 balls with 4 boundaries and 3 sixes. Padikkal’s century partnership with Rohan Kadam for the second wicket got Karnataka over the line with ease as they won that game by 9 wickets.
After his very impressive performances in white ball cricket, Padikkal was picked in Karnataka’s first class team earlier this year and was handed his first Ranji Trophy cap ahead of the game against Bengal.
Padikkal batted at no. 6 in the first innings of that game and scored just 4 runs, but in the second innings, he was promoted up the order to no. 3 and he fought really hard for Karnataka with a score of 62 off 129 balls with 7 boundaries. However, Karnataka still ended up losing that game by a huge margin of 174 runs.
