Devdutt Padikkal: Overcoming Health Complications To Land A Dream Test Debut

Devdutt Padikkal beamed broadly while receiving his India Test cap from Ravichandran Ashwin on Thursday but the happy exterior masked the struggles the 23-year-old had to go through over the last two years to reach this dream point. After making his India debut in 2021 during a T20I against Sri Lanka, Devdutt's career graph did not go up as expected due to a COVID-19 infection and a stomach-related health complication. "Those two years (2021 to early 2023), he was struggling to stay fit and healthy. He suffered from loss of weight too. It was a constant stomach bug that was troubling him.

"We kept talking to each other over phone, and incidentally, I was also having the same condition and we were consulting the same doctor in the Jain Hospital without each other knowing," Irfan Sait, the founder of Karnataka Institute of Cricket (KIOC), told PTI.

"Mohammed Naseerudden, another coach here, too has been close to him and kept in touch with him during those low-mood phases." However, Devdutt has this in-built streak of determination to hurdle over obstacles.

"I have known Devdutt from the age of 11 when he relocated to Bangalore from Hyderabad to pursue a career in cricket. He was a determined kid and the illness did not change anything.

"He worked really hard on his fitness and diet ahead of the 2023 season because he wanted to get back to the place where he was in 2020-21," he said.

The hard work did not go in vain. The graceful left-hander had a fine 2023-24 season for Karnataka across the formats.

He opened the season scoring 119 runs in five T20s while striking at 118 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy but bettered those stats in the ensuing Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Devdutt was the highest run-getter for Karnataka with 465 runs