Devdutt Padikkal against Rajasthan Royals in the now-suspended IPL 2021
The Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) former chief selector MSK Prasad feels that young top-order batsman Devdutt Padikkal is an interesting prospect for the future and that "there is still some time for him to enter into the Test setup".
The Kerala-born player has shown tremendous promise for his Indian Premier League (IPL) side Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), scoring a stunning century against Rajasthan Royals (RR) this season.
Padikkal smashed 101 runs off 52 deliveries at a strike rate of 194.23, a knock that included 11 boundaries and six maximums. "Padikkal would need another good year in the domestic circuit to make his case strong for entering the Indian Test unit," felt Prasad.
"He's definitely the guy for the future; there are no two ways about it. But if you're looking at longer formats, maybe he will take one more year of domestic cricket," Prasad was quoted as saying by SportsKeeda.
Incidentally, Padikkal, who plays for Karnataka in domestic tournaments, is the second-highest run-getter in a single edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, having amassed 737 runs in seven innings in the 2020-21 season, with the highest being 152. He has slammed four centuries and three half-tons in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Only Prithvi Shaw, who plays for Mumbai, is above him with 827 runs from eight innings in the 2020-21 season. Mayank Agarwal, representing Karnataka, scored 723 runs in the 2017-18 season and is placed third.
On the inclusion of Prasidh Krishna as a backup in India's squad for the World Test Championship final clash against New Zealand and the following five-match Test series against England, Prasad said: "You have India A bowlers, all these Prasidh Krishna and Ishan Porel have gone through India A cricket.
"Also, it's pretty evident the way Avesh Khan bowled in the IPL, he was hitting 145-147 kmph in T20 format, so he will obviously be very helpful to practice with in England. And eventually, these are the guys who are going to play for the country in the future."
