Royal Challengers Bangalore star Devdutt Padikkal had a breakthrough IPL season emerging as the highest scorer for his side. He won the Emerging Player of the Season award and has earned praise from all quarters. In the wake of a successful stint, Padikkal has revealed what skipper Virat Kohli told after their campaign came to an end.

Padikkal accumulated 473 runs in 15 games at 31.53 with a decent strike rate of 124 along with five half-centuries. He left behind the likes of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli to finish as the highest scorer for the team. Devdutt Padikkal remained a constant feature at the top of the order even as the management kept shuffling between Aaron Finch and Josh Philippe as his partner.

Don’t let the success affect – Virat Kohli to Devdutt Padikkal

He provided brisk starts to the franchise at almost times, earning respect from plaudits and backing to play for India soon. BCCI President Sourav Ganguly also backed the southpaw to feature in the Blue jersey in the near future. In the wake of it, Devdutt Padikkal highlighted the lessons he learnt from Virat Kohli and asserted that there is a lot of hard work he needs to put.

“There’s a long way to go for me and there’s so much I have to improve upon. It’s just the beginning. Virat helped me along the way in terms of how to build innings. He asked me to continue to work hard and not let the success affect me.

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Keep pushing ahead and keep improving is what he told me, and that’s what I am going to do. It’s important one should continue to enjoy the game and not get caught in thoughts regarding policy and playing for the country because that’s going to happen when the time is right,” Padikkal told India Today.

Adding further, Devdutt Padikkal added that he admired Gautam Gambhir during his growing up years. The former India opener used to step up when his side needed the most which inspired Padikkal the most. Since Gambhir best delivered under pressure, Padikkal revealed him as one of his cricketing idols.

“I used to enjoy his (Gambhir) batting and really liked the fact that he would deliver whenever his team would require it the most. Whenever the team was under pressure you could count on him. He is one of my cricket idols,” he added.