Devdutt Padikkal had a memorable Test debut. The southpaw got his chance in the IND vs ENG 5th Test in Dharamshala and faired brilliantly. On the other hand, his family back in Bengaluru was elated after Padikkal was given his maiden Test cap. The batter slammed his maiden fifty to steal the headlines.
Padikkal was inducted into the India squad after the injury of KL Rahul. The prolific batter travelled to UK to recover from his quads injury. As a result the southpaw got his chance in the team. Furthermore, Rajat Patidar suffered an injury thereby granting a chance for Padikkal to feature in the game where he slammed a fine fifty.
“When Dev phoned us last night he was not sure about playing. We expected that Rajat Patidar would be given another chance. When a friend who had gone to Dharamsala to watch the Test sent me a congratulatory message, I thought he was pulling my leg. When I switched on the TV, we saw Dev receiving his Test cap from Ashwin,” said Devdutt’s father Babunu Kunnath.
Surprsingly Devdutt’s family is not present in Dharamshala for the IND vs ENG 5th Test. His father claimed that he has no regrets in not being in the venue. “Not at all. We love watching him play on the television. We rarely go to stadiums for his matches. We’ve not watched a single IPL game at a stadium. Dev’s mother Ambili is not at home. His elder sister works with Dream11 and she is in Mumbai at present. She might go to Dharamsala in a day or two,” he added.
“To be honest, Dev did not expect a call-up to the Indian Test side. He is a great admirer of the longest format of the game and playing Test cricket has always been his ultimate dream. In the ongoing Ranji Trophy season, he played only in four matches. However, he came up with a string of good performances for Karnataka in those matches and earned the attention of national selectors. The pitch in Dharamsala does not appear to be batting-friendly. We hope he will grab the opportunity and do well. We are waiting for his batting,” Babunu added.
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