Devdutt Padikkal realistic on India call-up, says ‘lots of batting in line’

One player who really deserves to be in the Indian team, at least the ODI format is Devdutt Padikkal. The man from Karnataka averages a staggering 83 in LIST A, has four tons and a 91 in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, and is unstoppable. Yet, he missed the bus for the IND vs NZ ODIs.

In an interview with the Indian Express, he opened up on missing the cut, and not being disappointed with it. In fact, he went on to add, that he knows, there are others before him in the line. “I wouldn’t say it was disappointing,” Padikkal told The Indian Express.

“Yes, I was looking at the selection and seeing what would come out. But at the same time, I understood that there are so many batters in the line and everyone has been doing really well. And it’s not that easy to push into that one-day side. And again, that’s something that as cricketers, you have to make peace with. And you have to just try and do your job and keep scoring runs.”

There was even a period when his game was a little shaky. Changing formats was also not easy, but he credited Dinesh Karthik and Andy Flower at RCB, for the turnaround.

“As I have grown up wanting to play Test cricket, my game was moulded in a certain way. It was definitely a challenge when I had to make those adjustments to make sure that I am keeping up with the current way T20 cricket is played. To be honest, all the credit for that goes to DK (Dinesh Karthik) and Andy (Flower) at RCB.

“To be honest, the way they helped me through that phase and helped me understand how I can maximise my game in the T20 format helped me a lot in terms of understanding what I needed to do. Earlier, because I was so used to playing in the power play, I was not really thinking about playing that phase after 7-14.” Padikkal added.