He proved his class again with a 57 & 16* for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy 2025 semifinal.
Devdutt Padikkal has had a mixed 2025, with highs and lows coming one after another. He started the year with a terrific century in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and later joined Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who bought him for INR 2 crores in the IPL 2025 auction.
He had a revamped batting approach and established himself as RCB’s mainstay, scoring 247 runs at an average of 27.44 and a strike rate of 150.60 in 10 innings, including two fifties. However, a hamstring injury ended his IPL 2025 campaign prematurely, and he had to watch the remaining tournament from home, as RCB ended their trophy drought.
Finally, Padikkal is back in action and proved his class again with a 57 & 16* for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy 2025 semifinal. Now, he hopes to impress for India A and knock on the door for Test selection again with runs on his back.
“You know, every game that you play, especially for India, is very important. We have a few home Test series coming up. I’m looking forward to making a mark in the A series to hopefully stake a claim for that team as well,” stated Padikkal in a chat with ESPNcricinfo.
Devdutt Padikkal was unfortunate not to travel on the India A tour to England before the main series due to a hamstring injury in IPL 2025. However, before this rubber, Padikkal was seen as a potential Test material and had his chances in patches, including on the Australia tour.
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He made his Test debut against England last year and impressed immediately with a 65 on his maiden innings. Later, the southpaw had an opportunity to feature in the Perth Test as Shubman Gill was unavailable due to a thumb injury, where he showed resilience, even if a big score didn’t come.
India tried the likes of Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair on the England tour and had middling returns. Now that Padikkal is back in the mix, he must get the priority again since he hasn’t done anything wrong to get dropped.
There’s a No.3 spot vacant, and Padikkal should get the first crack in the upcoming home season, especially since he has shown the ability to score at this position various times, including in the recently concluded Duleep Trophy 2025 semifinal. A lot will depend on the A series, and his chances will boost massively if he can continue scoring runs against a quality Australia A outfit that will have several quality bowlers in the pace and spin departments.
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