Indian opening batsman Devdutt Padikkal is the news following his splendid innings of an unbeaten 101 for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League 2021 in Mumbai on Thursday. His ton, assisted by Virat Kohli's unbeaten 72 and a superb 181-run opening stand, was enough for RCB to chase down the total in 16.4 overs and make it look easy.
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Following Padikkal's heroic knock, he was widely acclaimed by fans and experts all across the country and globe. Meanwhile, legendary former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar feels that Padikkal has the abilities and skills to perform across formats if he plays for India at the international level.
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"I won't be surprised if he plays for India in any of the formats because he has got the class and the ability to do that. He is a heavy scorer in first-class cricket and Ranji Trophy as well gets big hundreds. In 50-overs cricket, he gets lots of runs and hundreds. Here, in the T20 domestic tournaments, he got lots of runs," Gavaskar told Star Sports.
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Gavaskar also hailed Karnataka to produce some top batsmen of late, including KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair, besides recalling some legends from the state. "Karnataka has always produced a terrific line of batsmen. Gundappa Vishwanath, Rahul Dravid, then KL Rahul. And if KL Rahul, you know, some of the stars need to believe in themselves a little more. Sometimes, you get the feeling that he doesn't believe in himself. He is such a talented player, And there is Mayank Agarwal, there is Karun Nair, who got a triple hundred, he also needs to get his act together," he added.
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Padikkal's innings also caught the attention of Team India head coach Ravi Shastri. While he praised Padikkal for being a good 'student', he also acclaimed Kohli as the 'master'. "The student and the master at work. Fabulous viewing. These Southpaws make it look easy," he wrote on Twitter.
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Match summaryWinning the toss, RCB skipper Kohli elected to bowl first. Although RR was off to a nervous start, it made a speedy recovery, thanks to Shivam Dube and Rahul Tewatia. However, the RCB openers, in the form of Kohli and Padikkal, were just too good to handle for the RR bowlers.Brief scores: RR 1779 (Dube- 46, Tewatia- 40; Siraj- 327, Harshal- 347) lost to RCB 1810 (Kohli- 72*, Padikkal- 101*; Parag- 014) by ten wickets.
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