RCB coach Andy Flower’s rich praise for Devdutt Padikkal’s knock and partnership with Virat Kohli vs RR: ‘Genuinely outstanding…’ | Ipl News

One of the under-rated aspects of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s solid season so far in the Indian Premier League has been the resurgence of Devdutt Padikkal, but it is not lost on head coach Andy Flower. The Karnataka batter started off his IPL career with RCB, having an impressive couple of wins, but his stints with Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants didn’t go well. He was picked up at the recent auction RCB once again and after 8 matches so far, he has scored 230 runs with a couple of half centuries to his name. The standout aspect has been Padikkal’s strike rate this year, scoring at 156.46 so far, much higher than his IPL strike rate of 126.61.
Padikkal continued his good form on Thursday night against his former employers RR, scoring a 27-ball 50 at a strike rate of 185.18, bettered only Jitesh Sharma’s cameo lower down the order. Flower, speaking after RCB’s first home win of the season in four attempts, said Padikkal’s knock was outstanding, and praised his partnership with Virat Kohli for taking their side to a winning total.
“In the in the first three (home) games, I thought our bowlers and fielding unit did outstanding work to keep us in the game as long as they did, because all three totals were a bit below par,” the former Zimbabwe cricketer said. “So watching our guys adapt to the conditions today was really gratifying. 
I was really proud of the way that they battered. Dev was sensational to score 50 off 27 balls like that without ever slogging, I thought that was a genuinely outstanding innings. We say a lot about Virat, but his 70 or 42 balls and that partnership with Dev really gave us a platform on a pitch that wasn’t that easy, I didn’t think. 
I thought that was an above-par total, to be honest. And so that class of thatting and thinking that went into it from those guys, I thought was genuinely outstanding.”
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Padikkal, speaking in the mid-match interview, said it was pleasing to be in this form after having a tough few seasons in the IPL and appreciated the inputs he has been receiving from RCB’s new batting coach Dinesh Karthik.
“I have put in lot of hard work, the last couple of years haven’t been great, I really struggled and it felt like nothing was going my way,” Padikkal said. “I really worked hard on myself, not just mentally, but also tactically to be at my A-game this season. Of course, you know, having DK and Andy around this season has been really great to be honest. The amount of work I’ve done with DK over the last couple of months has been tremendous and the amount of knowledge and tactical insight that he has, has really helped me this year.”