Former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar lauded RCB opener Devdutt Padikkal for his magnificent century against Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the match 16 of IPL 2021 and said that he 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.
Chasing the target of 178 runs against RR in their fourth match of IPL 14, RCB opener Devdutt Padikkal played a blistering knock of 101* off 52 deliveries to guide Virat Kohli-led side to a comfortable 10-wicket win.
He, however, has been one of the leading run-scorer in the Indian domestic circuit in all three formats and also won the Emerging Player award in IPL 2020 and helped RCB reach the playoffs, amassing 473 runs in 15 games at an average of 31.5, scoring five half-centuries in the process.
While talking to Starsports, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar said that he won’t be surprised if Padikkal plays for India in any of the formats as he has got class and the ability to do that.
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"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. So, I won’t be surprised if he is there sooner rather than later," Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports.
Gavaskar while praising Karnataka's cricket set-up highlighted how the state has produced terrific batsmen over the years.
"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 bit 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. It’s a terrific batting line-up Karnataka have," he said.
With the 10-wicket victory over RR, the Virat Kohli-led side regained their place at the top of the points table. They will next face Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Mumbai on 25th April.
(Star Sports inputs)
