Coming back to RCB paved my path towards the cricket I wanted to play – Devdutt Padikkal
Life came a full circle for Devdutt Padikkal as he returned to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru ahead of the IPL 2025 season. He started his IPL stint with RCB back in 2021. After the initial embers of brilliance, Padikkal found it hard to get the wheels in motion. He had a handful of seasons away from Bengaluru, playing for Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants before finally being picked by RCB in the 2025 mega-auction.
Padikkal had an instant impact on the season, showing his fireworks at No. 3. Talking on the latest episode of RCB Bold Diaries, Padikkal opened up on the wholesome journey that saw him starting his career at RCB and how it evolved from there for the youngster.
Padikkal said, “Initially, the first couple of seasons I played in the IPL. It probably wasn't at the top level of what everyone was doing at that stage, but that strike rate was probably acceptable, I felt, at that point because I felt I was doing well.”
Adding further, Padikkal said, “And the next three, four years, the game evolved so much and so quickly that that was probably terrible if you find the same strike rate and average right now. For someone coming into the IPL at like 20 years old, that was hard to accept, you know? That was hard to understand because it changed so rapidly over the next few years.”
Padikkal had to make a new adjustment to his batting position, coming out at number three or four for Rajasthan Royals instead of his natural opening position. Shedding light on the transition, Padikkal stated, “At that point, when I had to make that transition so quickly from, you know, someone who batted at, you know, 120 strike rate to bowl to someone who at least reaches 140, 150, it doesn't happen overnight. I was obviously an opener my whole career.”
He continued, “Then I moved to LSG for that one year and obviously that didn't go great either. It was really hard. I felt everything comes down to the monetary value, right, at the end of the day. And when a franchise is putting their faith in you in terms of that much money that they are paying you, you feel like you're letting them down, right, when you don't perform.”
Padikkal added, “And at that point, honestly, I didn't have any answers either. So if I did, I would have probably done better that season, right? I didn't have answers. I didn't know how to, you know, go about it, how to change things, what I needed to change specifically. I did not understand it enough. The way the season went, it really dampened a lot of things that had happened that year. But at the same time, that gave me that motivation and that, you know, real fire in me to try and get better. And sometimes you need that. You need those failures along your journey to remind you how much harder you need to work to get to where you want to get to.”
Emphasising how being by RCB changed it all for him, Padikkal said, “I feel that auction was probably the turning point of my career in a lot of ways. I was at that stage of my career where I needed to really commit to the type of cricket I want to play and the kind of cricketer I wanted to be. And coming back to RCB paved my path towards the brand of cricket I wanted to play.”
