IPL 2022 auction: Why Devdutt Padikkal found batting with Virat Kohli ‘easy’ at Royal Challengers Bangalore

One of the biggest finds for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) over the last couple of reasons was opener Devdutt Padikkal from Karnataka. Padikkal’s opening salvo with former skipper Virat Kohli was what fired the RCB into the playoffs of the IPL 2021.

In the last two seasons of the IPL, Padikkal has managed to notch up 884 runs in 29 matches with 1 hundred and six fifties at a strike-rate of over 125. In an RCB podcast, Padikkal said that because all the attention is on Kohli that takes the pressure off him and makes his task easy. Hailing experienced Kohli, Padikkal also said that it is priceless to have him explain things.

“Virat Kohli is such an incredible batsman. And lots of experience and knowledge about the game, won the World Cup, and he has done everything in cricket so someone like him in the non-striker end is just priceless,” Padikkal said.

“There is not much attention on me when he is batting with me. That takes away a lot of pressure from my shoulder. As a youngster, coming into the team and playing with him, you couldn’t have asked for anything more,” he added.

Watch Padikkal speak about his partnership with Virat Kohli here…

#Trailer: Devdutt on how it is to bat with Virat, King Kohli's love for Bengaluru, Mike Hesson's auction mindset and more fun stories, coming soon on the RCB podcast powered by @KotakBankLtd: 'How the IPL changed my life'. #PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #RCBPodcast pic.twitter.com/WMFQEVFCHl

— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) February 2, 2022

Padikkal was not retained by the RCB ahead of the IPL 2022 season. He will go into the IPL 2022 mega auction with a base price of Rs 2 crore and is sure to draw a lot of interest from most team at the auction.

RCB is one of the few franchises that are yet to win the silverware. They would like to change that and the process would start at the auction.  Padikkal and Kohli as a pair got good partnerships throughout the 2021 season.