Duleep Trophy A Big Tournament; Lot Of Competition For Test Place: Devdutt Padikkal

Devdutt Padikkal wants to prepare himself for the upcoming international season by notching up a few big scores in the Duleep Trophy, as the elegant batter believes it will keep him at par with the strong contenders vying for a place in India's middle-order. (More Cricket News)

Padikkal, who made his Test debut against England earlier this year, will turn up for Team D in the Duleep Trophy, starting from September 5.

“Yeah, definitely it's (Duleep Trophy) a very important tournament. You don't get too many opportunities at the highest level. So, it's important that I continue to score runs and the Duleep Trophy gives me an opportunity for that,” Padikkal told PTI on Tuesday.

“I had a really good red ball season last year, that gave me the India opportunity. Obviously, making my debut was something very special. So, I have to keep continuing that form as there is a lot of competition around,” he added.

Padikkal was hinting at the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy season where he made an astounding 556 runs from just four matches at an average in excess of 93 with three hundreds.

The left-hander said the amount of runs he made last season kept him prepared mentally once the India door opened for him.

“To be honest, going into that game (against England), I felt ready. I felt like I had earned that spot. Obviously, I played a lot in domestic cricket that year and I got a lot of runs in the Ranji Trophy as well.

“So, once you have those runs behind you, you have that confidence. Even playing for India, it feels natural and that was the case for me. And obviously, getting that 50 (on Test debut) gave me some more confidence as well,” he noted.

The 24-year-old hoped that he can do an encore this season too.

“It's important that I continue to improve. Obviously, Test cricket keeps challenging you. It's a difficult format to play. So, I just have to keep focusing on things where I can improve.

“There's a lot for me to learn. So, I'm continuing to work on things that I need to improve on,” he said.

One part of that improvement is to increase his presence in the white ball formats, and Padikkal is eyeing an upshift in his strike-rate in one-dayers and T20s.

“I've been working on a few things. You know, trying to better my strike-rate and you know, really have a different mindset in T20 cricket.

“I've been trying to implement that in this KSCA Maharaja Trophy. It's getting better. So, hopefully, I can continue to do that.”

However, Padikkal admitted that the process is way more challenging than merely talking about it.

“Yeah, it is challenging. It's more a mental shift than anything else. I try to keep my basics the same as much as possible in all the three formats.”

The core of that journey Padikkal said is to be more mentally aggressive.

“It's about mentally making that shift to being a little bit more aggressive in the one-day format and obviously more aggressive in the T20 format.

“So, in a sense, the way I bat doesn't change. It's just the extra shots that you end up playing in the different formats,” he elaborated.

However, Padikkal has an off-field obstacle to tackle – a stomach condition that prevented him from playing at his optimum level a couple of seasons back.

The Karnataka man said he has learned to play around it.

“Yeah, I've pretty much completely got out of it. It's not something that goes away pretty quickly. I'm still managing it. But at the same time, I'm not in a situation where I was a couple of years back where I couldn't play.

“So, as long as I'm good enough to play, I'm perfectly fine. And I'm still working on managing the condition. Obviously, it will take some more time. But that is not affecting my playing cricket,” he noted.

But for now, Padikkal’s aim is to deliver for Gulbarga Mystics in the ongoing KSCA Maharaja Trophy T20.

“Our campaign has been great. We've played some very good cricket. We have some really good young players coming through. Obviously, the last couple of games we have made a few changes, as we are just trying a few things.

“Since we have already qualified, we just want to give everyone an opportunity. Hopefully, in the knockouts, we'll have our full team back and we'll have a good show,” he signed off.