New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Devdutt Padikkal is no longer just a graceful dance-timer; he is evolving into a complete T20 force. Padikkar, fresh off his 61 against Sunrisers Hyderabad, in an exclusive interview with TOI, talks about the mental reset behind his radical transformation, technical fine-tuning with the RCB brain trust and clarity of his role in the strong line-up. As the IPL 2026 season gets underway, his ambitions remain firmly locked on donning the Indian jersey. This season is a battle between fearless prodigies, heavyweights and legends, and Padikkar is determined to be among them. extract… Q: 26 off 61 against Sunrisers Hyderabad…does it feel like a continuation of your Vijay Hazare Trophy form or is it a conscious change in approach? intense pulsed light? It’s very different when you play in the IPL. But at the same time, running is always a confidence booster. These runs during the domestic season have really helped me become more confident and calm while batting. But at the end of the day, when you go into the IPL, you need to adopt a very positive attitude and your mentality will definitely change. Q: You’ve gone from being a classic top-order batsman to someone who can switch gears explosively. What has changed mentally and technically? A lot has changed mentally and technically. Firstly, mentally you obviously need to believe in your ability to bat at a certain pace that will make you successful in the IPL and that’s something I have to work on a lot. I was raised a certain way to hit the ball, and it wasn’t easy to make that transition. Of course, technically I worked with Andy FlowerMobobat and Dinesh Karthik I’ve done a lot over the past few years to get better at certain things with my balance at impact, where the ball is before it’s released, and a few other things related to the ball. I won’t get into the technical details, but it definitely took a lot of hard work to get where I am now. Q: Royal Challengers Bangalore has several power batsmen, how do you define your role in the batting line-up? I know exactly what I need to do when I get out. I need to keep this momentum going. We have some really explosive hitters in our lineup. When you have that kind of firepower, you want to make sure you don’t disrupt the momentum. That’s what I want to do and keep it simple from there. Q: You had a good IPL season before, but the Indian team wasn’t called up as often as your numbers should have suggested. Is that still your motivation? Or have you made peace with controlling what you can do? Of course, playing for India is the ultimate goal! Whenever you score you want to be noticed and want to play for the national team, that’s still the same. But at the end of the day, you can only control what you can control, and that’s what I want to do. Hopefully if I continue to behave well and keep doing the right things, I’ll get there eventually. Q: With a busy international schedule, do you allow yourself to think about that India jersey? Or are you deliberately not thinking about the topic? not at all! I’m not going to try to put it out of my mind because that’s what I want to achieve and that’s what keeps me going. What’s important is that you continue to dream and continue to make sure those thoughts don’t leave you. The important thing is that you continue to believe that you will succeed, and having this goal in front of me motivates me even more.
