Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Devdutt Padikkal (PTI Photo/Sailendra Bhojak) New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Devdutt Padikkal is no longer just an elegant timekeeper of the ball; developing into a complete T20 force. Padikkal, fresh off a brilliant 61 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, opened up about the mental reset behind his aggressive shift, the technical fine-tuning with the RCB think-tank and the clarity of his role in a packed line-up in an exclusive interview with TOI. As the IPL 2026 season intensifies, his ambitions remain firmly fixed on the India jersey. This season is a battle of fearless prodigies, heavyweights and legends and Padikkal is determined to be among them. excerpts… Q: That 61 off 26 against Sunrisers Hyderabad… did it feel like a continuation of your Vijay Hazare Trophy form or was there a conscious shift in approach IPL? It’s very different when you get into an IPL game. But at the same time, running always boosts self-confidence. And having all those runs in the home season definitely helped me be a lot more confident and calm when I went out there to bat. But at the end of the day you have to have a very aggressive approach going into the IPL and your mindset will definitely change. Q: You’ve gone from a classic top-order batter to someone who can switch explosively. What has changed mentally and technically? There is a lot that has changed mentally and technically. Firstly, mentally, you obviously have to believe that you’re capable of batting at a pace that will give you success in the IPL, and that’s something I’ve had to work on a lot. I grew up batting in a certain way and making that shift is not that easy. And of course, technically, over the last couple of years I’ve worked quite a lot with Andy Flower, Mo Bobat and Dinesh Karthik to fix certain things in terms of the balance of the bat, the positions I get into before releasing the ball and some other aspects of the bat. I won’t go into the technical details, but there’s certainly a lot that went into where I am right now. Q: With Royal Challengers Bengaluru having some power batting, how do you define your role in this batting line-up? It’s pretty clear to me what I have to do when I go there. I need to keep up the pace. We have some really explosive batsmen throughout the lineup. And when you have that kind of firepower, you have to make sure you don’t break that momentum. That’s what I try to do and keep it simple from there. Q: You’ve had good IPL seasons before and the call-ups to India haven’t come as often as your numbers perhaps deserve. Does it still drive you, or have you resigned yourself to just controlling what you can? Of course, playing for India is the ultimate goal! And whenever you score runs, you hope to get noticed and be counted on to play for the country, and that remains the same. But at the end of the day, you can only control what you can, and that’s what I’m trying to do. Hopefully if I continue to perform well and do the right things I will eventually get there. Q: With a busy international calendar, do you allow yourself to think about that India jersey, or is it a conversation you deliberately put out of your mind? Not at all! I don’t try to push it out of my head because that’s the goal I want to achieve and it’s something that keeps me going. It is important that you continue to dream and continue to make sure that these thoughts do not leave you. It’s important that you continue to believe that you can do it, and having that goal in front of me pushes me that much more.
