West Indies legend Brian Lara has heaped praise on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batsman Devdutt Padikkal and wants him to score a century this season. Lara also wants the top-order batsman to bag a few Man of the Match awards in the ongoing 14th edition of the IPL.
Speaking on Star Sports' Select Dugout Live Feed, Lara said, "He's (Padikkal) such a great talent. Last year he got a couple of fifties, batted well, he supported Virat Kohli very well. What I want to see in 2021 IPL is for him to go on and get a few Man of the Matches and get a couple of triple figures under his belt. Such a great little player! A few little things to iron out. I hope he did that in the break and comes back really storming hard for this IPL."
In this season, Padikkal missed the first game against Mumbai Indians but played the second match against SunRisers Hyderabad. He scored 11 runs and was in good touch during his brief stay, but could not continue his innings.
Padikkal played his first season for RCB last year and he managed to leave a good impression after scoring 473 runs from 15 matches at an average of 31.53 with his best score being 74. The left-handed batsman had a good build-up to the IPL after he finished the Vijay Hazare Trophy as the second-highest run-getter. He finished with a tally of 737 runs. The Virat Kohli-led side has won both the games in the season so far. RCB will next play against Kolkata Knight Riders at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.
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