Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter Devdutt Padikkal made a bold remark involving Virat Kohli ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. RCB enter the season as defending champions after lifting their maiden IPL title in 2025. Padikkal said that young players walking into the dressing room often gravitate towards Kohli’s bat and assume they will receive one from the former skipper.
He explained that many youngsters now expect senior players to hand over their bats without needing to ask. The left-hander added that aspiring players specifically look to use Kohli’s bat, hoping to emulate the star batter’s style and success.
“Everyone once they come into the dressing room especially in RCB, the first thing they do is go pick up Virat’s bat and try and emulate what he does on the field. Everyone wants one of his bats.”
“I’m sure there’ll be a lot of guys in this dressing room as well. everyone that comes into the dressing room looks at the senior-most player on the side and expects them to give a bat. They don’t even ask them for a bat. They just know okay he’s supposed to give me a bat,” he said on the ‘RCB Podcast‘.
Devdutt Padikkal Names His Left-Handed Batting Inspiration
During the same podcast, the RCB batter also revealed that former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh has been his biggest inspiration as a left-handed batter. Yuvraj is widely regarded as one of the finest left-handers Indian cricket has produced. Padikkal lauded Yuvraj’s fearless approach, cancer comeback, and elegant left-handed batting.
He added that watching Yuvraj play played a key role in shaping and improving his own game.
“It’s just his fearlessness. He’s fought through a lot of things in life and obviously all that that he did outside the cricket field is something amazing. But for me personally, when I watched him bat, it was just as a left-hander, I just loved watching him bat.”
“You know, I feel a lot of uh left-handers, if you ask them who was the most good-looking left-hander to watch, it was probably Yuvraj Singh. The elegance with which he batted and I just love watching him bat. It helped me mould my game in terms of what I wanted to be as a left-hander,” he said.
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