Devdutt Padikkal reveals his ultimate goal
Devdutt Padikkal
|| India Correspondent ||
Youngster Devdutt Padikkal was in sublime form during the 2021 Vijay Hazare Trophy scoring 737 runs in just 7 innings which came at an average of 147.4 and strike rate of 95.96 including a record four centuries on the trot too. He was also in great touch in the previous edition of the IPL in the UAE and ended as the highest run-getter for RCB as well.
However, Padikkal is looking forward to carrying the momentum this season as well. He revealed that there was a change in the opponent's strategy against him in the Vijay Hazare Trophy after his stunning show in the IPL last season.
"May be, to an extent. They probably had certain plans against me which they didn’t have before. I continued to play my game. In terms of the general feeling of playing the tournament, it was pretty similar to the previous season. I just wanted to make sure I continued my good form and kept scoring big runs," he added.
However, despite having a stunning domestic season, he didn't get the call-up for the ODI series against England but he stated that his only job was to perform and improve constantly as well.
"What I have learnt for the past two-three years is that I can’t be really bothered about the selection. It is not in my control. What I am looking to do is to improve my game every day, work on myself. Two-three years back may be, I used to think a lot about selection, being in the team and stuff like that. In the last couple of years, I have learnt it is important to focus on my game and continue to get runs wherever I am playing. It doesn’t matter for which team, franchise cricket or domestic cricket; I want to make sure I continue to score runs, make my team win. Eventually, when I get there it will be great," he further added.
However, India has so much talent for every position and mostly in the openers' position across formats. Apart from Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, other options are - KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan. But Padikkal is not afraid of the challenge and accepts it to perform better as well.
"There is lot of competition, but I take it as a fun challenge, to be honest. When you have a high level of competition it makes you do better, pushes you even more; that is always good. I just keep pushing myself and keep improving every day. The more competition I have, the more drive I have to do better. That’s how I look at it," he concluded.
