Former West Indies batting great Brian Lara is confident that the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) opener Devdutt Padikkal would better his performance during the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and would also bag a few Man of the Match awards.
Padikkal, 20, was one of the finds of the IPL season as he had amassed 474 runs, which included five half-centuries, and played a significant role in RCB’s campaign.
In the ongoing season, he however, was forced to miss RCB’s season opener against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as he was recovering from COVID-19 and later managed to score just 11 runs in his first appearance, against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
“He’s (Padikkal) such a great talent. Last year, he got a couple of (5) fifties, he batted well, he supported Virat Kohli very well,” Lara told Star Sports’ Select Dugout Live Feed.
Lara is hopeful that Padikkal has worked on his game in the last five months and asid: “A few little things to iron out. I hope he did that in the break and comes back really storming hard for this IPL.”
“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,” he added.