The Evolution of Devdutt Padikkal

People generally tend to celebrate a caravan of success and ponder over them to map out the justification to the things that worked well -- providing evidence to a popular saying, "Success reaps more attention than failures". Mistakes are bound to happen in life. However, in order for them to be of significant value, one must learn to elicit the key substance from previous failures, which will eventually help the individual to evolve. 

Devdutt Padikkal, a level-headed entity, burst onto the domestic season in the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy. In his first Ranji Trophy campaign, the youngster showed sporadic flashes of his batting prowess, scoring three half-centuries in 10 innings. However, he failed to capitalize on the commendable starts due to the lapse of concentration when nearing a hundred. Quite interestingly, the left-handed batsman fell in the seventies (77, 74, and 75) on all three occasions. 

Devdutt went back to the drawing board in a bid to work on the shortcomings and reinforce his thought process. Unfazed by pressure and with the presence of big names in the dressing room, the teen prodigy sought to carve a niche for himself. 

Round 3, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy - At 7/2, chasing a daunting target of 185, Karnataka were clearly not the horse to back. Padikkal, successfully mitigating risks over the next two hours, dictated terms with sangfroid against Andhra. The southpaw's well-constructed century provided a blueprint for the kind of innings he could play. Most importantly, he was open to learning and evolving from previous experiences than lamenting mistakes. 

KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, and K Gowtham - In a team that had the most number of match-winners put together, the teen prodigy lorded over them by contributing handsomely to Karnataka's twin triumph in the abbreviated formats. The southpaw contributed 42.7% and 36.13% to Karnataka's total tally of runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy respectively. The statistics corroborate the fact that he places greatest emphasis on the team over his individual milestones. 

Karnataka, a state that has always had the legacy of producing a lineage of stars, unearthed a new hero in Devdutt. The 20-year-old will be keen to stake his claims for RCB in the forthcoming season of the IPL.