"Has Taken Bull By The Horns": RCB Spin Bowling Coach On Batter Devdutt Padikkal

Ahead of his side's match against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Delhi, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) spin bowling coach Malolan Rangarajan spoke on Devdutt Padikkal, expressing happiness with his performances so far and hoping that he keeps up with his consistency during the back end of the tournament. At the third spot in the points table with six wins and three losses, and on a high after their first win at home, RCB will be aiming to avenge a loss at home to DC when they take on the Red and Blue side at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday. DC is in the second spot, with six wins and two losses, giving them 12 points. After an up and down start to the season, Padikkal found consistency as a hard-hitting number three and has scored two successive fifties against Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Rajasthan Royals (RR).

In eight matches so far, Padikkal has delivered 230 runs for RCB at an average of 32.85, with a strike rate of over 156 and two half-centuries. After being picked by RCB for Rs two crores in the mega auction last year, Padikkal has been adopted well to a counter-attacking role, unlike the opener role he had during seasons 2020 and 2021 during his first stint with RCB, which saw him score 473 and 411 respectively, including a century and six fifties.

Speaking during the pre-match presser, Malolan said as quoted by an RCB press note that RCB was looking for a left-handed batter during the auction and it was surely an advantage that Padikkal had been with RCB before and batted a lot for them, particularly with Virat Kohli.

"When Devdutt was with RCB, he had two stellar years. He scored close to 500 runs. He has had an unfortunate runoff form in the last three years, but again, just with the way we prepared in the auction, we