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Former South Africa National Team and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter AB de Villiers highly praised Devdutt Padikkal for his stunning batting in the India vs Sri Lanka Test match in Galle. Padikkal replaced the injured batter Sai Sudharshan at No. 3 and scored 167 runs on his own brilliance. This remarkable effort by Devdutt Padikkal keeps India in the driving seat against the home team.
Hailing Devdutt Padikkal, AB de Villiers mentioned that he has some great memories with Padikkal from his last couple of seasons with RCB. Villiers and Padikkal shared the RCB dressing room and stitched multiple partnerships together in the Indian Premier League during the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
Loved batting with him: AB de Villiers on partnerships with Devdutt Padikkal for RCB
Speaking on his official YouTube channel, AB de Villiers 360, the former batter claimed that in his final two seasons with RCB, he enjoyed batting with Devdutt Padikkal. The South African batter reckoned that, despite being a subcontinent batter, Padikkal used to face the short-pitched deliveries precisely.
"I loved batting with him in 2020 and 2021 because he's a left-hander. A tall bloke who plays the short ball pretty well, considering he's from the subcontinent. He's one of the new generation modern Indian batters who can play the short ball really well," de Villiers mentioned.
He further expressed that the southpaw was not only a good batter, but also a good human being who stayed cool, calm, and well collected on the ground and was always keen on listening to advice from the experienced ones.
"I also enjoyed batting with him because he was so cool, calm, and collected. He was down to earth and would take my advice in and wasn't one of those cocky players who would turn his back on me," he continued.
AB de Villiers explains how they used to outplay the bowlers with Devdutt Padikkal as batting partner
The 42-year-old RCB legend, who was a right-handed batter, further in the video described how the two together used to tear the opposing bowlers apart by maintaining swift communication between each other. Because of the left-hand and right-hand combination, bowlers faced challenging situations to break the partnership.
"We strategized out there in the middle, and I loved chatting to him about our next moves. We took some of the bowlers apart by rotating strike as a left-right combination. He would tell me which bowlers he wanted to attack, and I would do the same, and that's how we completed our partnership," AB de Villiers stated.
Devdutt Padikkal played crucial roles for RCB in the 2025 and 2026 seasons
Padikkal, 26, so far has played for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in four seasons in two separate stints. In three out of four seasons, the left-hander aggregated over 400 runs in each campaign.
He played a crucial role in RCB's maiden trophy-winning season in 2025, and then in 2026 when the franchise successfully defended their hard-earned trophy. In 2026, Padikkal scored 464 runs in 15 innings with a strike rate of 168.72 and supported by three half-centuries.
