'You are special' - Suniel Shetty lauds Devdutt Padikkal for his imperious form

Cricket, or any sport, for that matter, is all about making the best possible use of whatever opportunities you get. This is particularly true in a cricket-mad country like India where you just have a lot of talent oozing out from every nook and corner of the nation. There are basically hundreds of candidates for a particular position and sometimes you can be the most talented cricketer, and you might still end up remaining on the fringes of the national team selection.

But as a lot of domestic stalwarts have shown in the past- You’ve got to be patient! Rather than thinking about the uncontrollable, one should focus on the task at hand; on the things that are in your control- Score runs or take gazillions of wickets for India A or your state team. It is fair to say that India- as a cricketing nation- is brimming with a plethora of talent.

Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shreyas Gopal, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal- you name it! Among all these young shining talents, there is another name who is consistently racking up runs in domestic cricket and swiftly moving up the ladder. The guy is Karnataka’s swashbuckling batsman- Devdutt Padikkal.

Suniel Shetty in awe of Devdutt Padikkal

Padikkal has been in supreme touch into the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy where he is currently second in the list of the most runs scored in the tournament. In seven games thus far, the Karnataka batsman has accumulated 339 runs at an average of 84.75 and a strike-rate of 171.21.

The left-hander was at his swashbuckling best during Karnataka’s latest Super-league game against Jharkhand where he racked up a whirlwind 30-ball 63. Incidentally, Devdutt’s innings did not go unnoticed from Bollywood star Sunil Shetty. Shetty- an ardent cricket fan- replied to one of Devdutt’s May 2019 tweet, where the batsman had written:

~You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it~ https://t.co/28heSEs5m8

— Devdutt Padikkal (@devdpd07) May 2, 2019

The 2018 Royal Challengers Bangalore recruit, Devdutt Padikkal has been in the form of his life in the ongoing domestic season. The left-handed swashbuckling batsman was one of the cornerstones in Karnataka’s triumphant Vijay-Hazare Trophy campaign.

Padikkal emerged as the leading run-scorer of India’s premier fifty-over domestic tournament, where he racked up 609 runs in eleven innings at an average of 67.67 which included five half-centuries and two three-figure scores- second only to Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vishnu Vinod- both of whom scored three each. 

Shetty replied to Padikkal’s tweet where he wrote, “You are special @devdpd07 …godbless!!

You are special @devdpd07 …godbless!!

— Suniel Shetty (@SunielVShetty) November 22, 2019