Devdutt Padikkal Opens Up On Franchisee Switch: 'It Was A Little Uncomfortable'
Devdutt Padikkal began his IPL career at the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2020 and shifted to the Rajasthan Royals after two seasons.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter Devdutt Padikkal has said that as a 21-year-old, he was playing for this franchise, but when he was released and was picked up by the Rajasthan Royals next, it was certainly uncomfortable, taking him considerable time to get used to proceedings.
Devdutt started his Indian Premier League career at Bengaluru five years back and shifted to Rajasthan after two seasons.
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After being in the ranks of RR for two years (2022-2023), Devdutt moved to the Lucknow Super Giants last year before returning to his home team, Bengaluru, this season, picked up at the IPL 2025 mega auction.
“It’s challenging when you are not settled on any side. As a 21-year-old, I was in RCB and when I made that move to another franchise, it was a little uncomfortable, obviously," Devdutt said while speaking at the post-match press conference.
“I wasn’t very confident about myself and it took me three-four years to find what I am as a cricketer in the IPL. It’s not that easy. You try your hardest, but at times it just doesn’t work," Devdutt added.
The India batter’s last big knock had come against Haryana in the first semifinal of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where he played a match-winning innings of 86 runs and also bagged three catches.
Devdutt said that he had made a dedicated pre-season effort to iron out certain mistakes in his batting.
“Coming into this season, I had to work hard. I knew there were things that I needed to improve on. There were lots of aspects of the game that I wasn’t up to the mark I felt in the last year," Devdutt said.
The India batter was not able to get set on the crease in Bengaluru’s first three games, scoring 10, 27 and 4, but on Monday, he put up a better show, scoring a 22-ball 37, although he was dismissed after getting set.
Devdutt, who added 91 runs for the second wicket with ace India batter Virat Kohli to help Bengaluru set a massive target of 222 against Mumbai, said that batting with the latter was always a “pleasure".
“Batting with Virat is a pleasure. He’s done this over and over again for so many years so that’s the level of consistency that you aim for as a young cricketer playing the IPL," Devdutt said.
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