“Always had that soft spot” - Devdutt Padikkal on returning to the RCB franchise in IPL 2025

Following his comeback to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) team for the 2025 Indian Premier League, Devdutt Padikkal made a significant announcement. At the 2025 auction, he was purchased for his basic price of ₹2 crore.

Advertisment

In 2020, Padikkal debuted in the IPL with RCB. Before joining the Rajasthan Royals (2022 and 2023) and Lucknow Super Giants (2024), he played for the team for two seasons. But in 2025, he went back to his native franchise.

During a recent appearance on the "RCB Podcast," Padikkal disclosed that playing for other teams against his local team was always strange. He acknowledged that he had a soft spot for the Bengaluru-based crew even though he was concentrating on his performance.

"It was weird. My friends and family were supporting me. Coming out to play for other teams against RCB was always a little bit weird. Obviously, I'm still motivated the same way in terms of wanting to perform and doing things for the franchise I was playing for. But I always had that soft spot for RCB and always looked at their games as games I love to watch and see them do well as well," Padikkal said on the RCB podcast.

Padikkal was a member of the team in 2020 and 2021; however, because they were COVID-19 years, he was unable to play at Chinnaswamy Stadium. The 2020 season took place in Dubai, while the 2021 edition took place in Dubai and a few locations in India.

"I've always wanted to play in front of the Chinnaswamy in the IPL, and whenever I've come here and played for other teams, it's not been the same, to be honest. It's never felt the same in terms of doing it for RCB. When I was in RCB before, unfortunately, we couldn't have games here; it was pretty heartbreaking," he added.

So far in the IPL, Padikkal has played 74 games and has scored 1806 runs with a century and 11 half-centuries.

Advertisment

"He has been a real amazing coach"—Devdutt Padikkal credits Dinesh Karthik for improvement in his batting.

In the IPL 2025 season, Devdutt Padikkal was assigned a specific duty and introduced an offensive strategy. Going after the bowling and batting with a better strike rate was his job at number three. The left-hander gave appreciation to Dinesh Karthik, the batting coach for the RCB, for helping him get better.

Interestingly, Karthik played for Bengaluru from 2022 to 2024 during his final IPL season before retiring. After that, he was given the position of batting coach.

"He (Karthik) has been a real amazing coach to have; he has so much knowledge, and he's just come out of T20 cricket. Having someone who's had that experience of T20 cricket so recently makes a big difference because he understands. He's played the game till now, and he's been so involved in IPL cricket over the years, he understands how bowlers think and how different bowling attacks think in terms of what their plans would be for you. So just having that tactical knowledge has really improved my game in terms of trying to, you know, preempt what the bowler's going to do, and he's always been really good at that, and that's why he's been so successful," he said.

In the 2025 IPL, Padikkal was instrumental in the team's first-ever victory. Before an injury kept him out of the season, he amassed 247 runs from ten games with a strike rate of 150.60

Stay updated with the latest cricket news, match insights, and exclusive updates at Sky247 India and download the Sky247 app to start betting today!