If there is one batter in IPL 2026 who has quietly done everything right without receiving the loudest applause, it is Devdutt Padikkal.
While Virat Kohli takes the headlines and the crowd roars every time he drives through the covers, Padikkal has been doing the essential, often unglamorous work at number three that holds Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s innings together. In IPL 2026, that role has expanded.
He is not just a support act anymore.
He is the backbone of one of the most dangerous batting lineups in the tournament.
Devdutt Padikkal IPL 2026 Performance: Match by Match
In the most recent RCB vs GT match at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Padikkal completed his half century off 22 balls, an innings of stunning aggression that put RCB in a position to challenge a 206-run target set by Gujarat Titans.
Rashid Khan eventually dismissed him for 55 as RCB lost their second wicket at 141. It captured everything Padikkal has become in this phase of his career: explosive at the top, calm under pressure, and capable of anchoring and accelerating in the same innings.
He has delivered consistently across the season.
Earlier in IPL 2026, he scored 18 off 13 balls against Delhi Capitals in a tighter situation where the innings needed steadying rather than fireworks, showing the two gears he now operates in without needing to think about it.
Devdutt Padikkal Strike Rate in IPL:
- In IPL 2020, his debut season, Padikkal scored 473 runs at a strike rate of 124.80, winning the Emerging Player Award and becoming the first player in IPL history to score three fifties in his first four matches. Those were brilliant numbers for a 20-year-old. But the Padikkal of 2026 is a fundamentally different proposition.
- In IPL 2025, he scored 247 runs in 10 matches at a strike rate of 150.61, his best ever in a single IPL season. That jump from 124 to 150 is not a small statistical movement. It represents a complete reimagining of how he plays T20 cricket.
He has added genuine power, improved his hitting through the off side, and stopped waiting for the ball to come to him. The result is a batter who can shift a match in six balls rather than sixteen.
Why Devdutt Padikkal Left RCB, RR, and LSG Before Returning
The journey to this version of Padikkal was not linear. After scoring over 400 runs in IPL 2021 and earning an India call-up, an acute intestinal issue struck him, affecting his form and fitness for two years. After two middling seasons with Rajasthan Royals, where he was shuffled away from his preferred opening or number three position, he was traded to Lucknow Super Giants ahead of IPL 2024.
That 2024 season was one to forget, as he managed only 38 runs in seven innings for Lucknow before being released at the end of the season.
Those were the years that shaped the hunger visible in his batting today. He had everything taken away by circumstance and illness, and rather than accepting reduced expectations, he rebuilt from scratch.
Devdutt Padikkal Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 Stats
The clearest sign that Padikkal had genuinely rediscovered himself came in the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26, the domestic tournament that served as his platform to remind every franchise exactly what they had overlooked.
Padikkal became the first batter in history to score more than 700 runs in a single Vijay Hazare Trophy season on two separate occasions. In eight matches that season, he scored 721 runs at an average of over 100, including four centuries and two fifties. His campaign opened with a 147 as Karnataka chased down a record 413-run target against Jharkhand, helping complete the second highest run-chase in List A cricket history.
He then followed with centuries in his second, fourth, and fifth innings, scoring 91 in the sixth match when a hundred seemed inevitable. Across his entire Vijay Hazare Trophy career, he now sits at 2,732 runs from 36 matches at an average of 94.20, with 13 centuries and 14 fifties.
Devdutt Padikkal SMAT 2025 and Maharaja Trophy Scores
- The red-hot domestic form did not stop at the Vijay Hazare Trophy. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025, Padikkal smashed a century off just 45 balls against Tamil Nadu, striking ten boundaries and six sixes as Karnataka posted 245 runs.
- The innings proved that the strike rate transformation is not an IPL-specific phenomenon. It is something he has rebuilt into his core game across every format.
- In the Maharaja Trophy T20 2025, representing Hubli Tigers, he scored 99 off 64 balls at a strike rate of 154.69, narrowly missing his century while helping his side post 210 and reach the final.
Devdutt Padikkal IPL Career Stats: All Seasons Compared
The full arc of Padikkal’s IPL career tells the story of a batter who peaked early, was disrupted by forces outside his control, and came back better. Across 80 IPL matches to date, he has scored 1,959 runs with one century and 13 half-centuries.
The career average flatters the lean years at Rajasthan and Lucknow rather than reflecting who he actually is as a batter. Season by season it reads: 473 runs in 2020, 411 in 2021, 376 in 2022, 261 in 2023, just 38 in 2024, and then 247 at a strike rate of 150-plus back at RCB in 2025, followed by his ongoing IPL 2026 campaign where that momentum has continued with force.
RCB officially retained him for IPL 2026, acknowledging that his aggressive starts had been a key foundation for RCB’s historic maiden IPL title victory in 2025, before a hamstring injury cut his campaign short.
Is Devdutt Padikkal the Best Batsman for RCB in IPL 2026?
Kohli gets the roars, Rajat Patidar gets the captaincy attention, and Tim David gets the big-hit highlights. But ask any cricket analyst what holds RCB’s batting together and the answer points to Padikkal.
He connects the powerplay assault to the middle overs, rescues innings when wickets fall early, and accelerates when others consolidate. In IPL 2026, he is doing all of it at a strike rate north of 150, which is not what cautious number threes do. That is what match-winners do. Devdutt Padikkal has finally become that.
Lucky Raina is a complete cricket writer chasing corporate dreams by day and cricket stories by night. Once a promising Under 16 cricketer, life took him down a different pitch but the love for the game never left.
