SRH v RCB, IPL 2020: Devdutt Padikkal slams fifty on RCB debut

Devdutt Padikkal had finished as the top-scorer in the last season of the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament.

Published : Sep 21, 2020 19:37 IST

Royal Challengers Bangalore's Devdutt Padikkal smashes a six against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Dubai on Monday.

Devdutt Padikkal has been making news over the past year for his performances in the domestic circuit and it comes as no surprise that skipper Virat Kohli picked the 20-year-old to feature in his very first IPL match on Monday. The left-hander, opening the batting with Australia's Aaron Finch, went on to score 56 in just 42 balls. The last player to score a half-century on IPL debut was Sam Billings in 2016. While the last Indian was Kedar Jadhav in 2010, Shreevats Goswami in 2008 is the only other RCB player to have achieved this feat. The Karnataka batsman had, earlier, not only finished as the top-scorer in the previous Vijay Hazare Trophy, but also topped the run charts at the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament last season. In the 20-over format, the 20-year-old had hammered 580 runs at an impressive strike rate of 175.75.

READ | Josh Phillipe, who is yet another young gun to watch out for, also made his debut. But he faced only two balls by the end of the innings and could only score a single. The wicketkeeper-batsman proved to be in good touch in the 2019-20 Big Bash League, starting off the tournament by clobbering 81 runs against the Perth Scorchers. The 23-year-old went on to hit four more fifties for the Sydney Sixers in the tournament.

He was also recently named in the Australia squad for the England ODI and T20I series. However, he is yet to feature in an international match.