"Always had that soft spot for RCB" - Star batter's big statement on returning to Royal Challengers Bengaluru for IPL 2025

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) star Devdutt Padikkal made a big statement after his return to the franchise for IPL 2025. He was acquired for his base price of ₹2 crore during the 2025 auction.

Padikkal made his IPL debut with RCB in 2020. He spent two seasons with the franchise before moving to the Rajasthan Royals (2022 and 2023) and Lucknow Super Giants (2024). However, he returned to his home franchise in 2025.

In a recent appearance on the 'RCB Podcast', Padikkal revealed that it was always weird to play for other teams against his home franchise. While he was focused on performing, he expressed having a soft corner for the Bengaluru-based team.

"It was weird. My friends and family were supporting me. Coming out to play for other teams against RCB was always a little bit weird. Obviously, I'm still motivated the same way in terms of wanting to perform and doing things for the franchise I was playing for. But always had that soft spot for RCB and always looked at their games as games I love to watch and see them do well as well," he said.

While Padikkal was previously with the team in 2020 and 2021, he did not get the opportunity to play at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, as those were the COVID-19 years. The 2020 season was held in Dubai, while the 2021 edition was held partly in a few venues in India and later in Dubai. Not being able to play at home during his previous stint was heartbreaking, the star batter reflected.

"I've always wanted to play in front of the Chinnaswamy in the IPL and whenever I've come here and played for other teams it's not been the same to be honest. It's never felt the same in terms of doing it for RCB. When I was in RCB before, unfortunately we couldn't have games here it was pretty heartbreaking," he added.

So far in the IPL, Padikkal has played 74 games and has scored 1806 runs with a century and 11 half-centuries.

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Devdutt Padikkal credits RCB batting coach for improvement in his game

Devdutt Padikkal was given a clear role and brought in an attacking approach in the 2025 season. His role at number three was to go after the bowling and bat with a higher strike rate. The left-hander credited RCB's batting coach Dinesh Karthik, who helped him improve his game.

Notably, Karthik's last stint before retiring from the IPL came with Bengaluru from 2022 to 2024. He was then appointed as the batting coach. Padikkal reckoned that having someone who had recently retired was a lot more helpful in the shortest format.

"He has been a real amazing coach to have, he has so much knowledge, he's just come out of T20 cricket. Having someone who's had that experience of T20 cricket so recently makes a big difference because he understands. He's played the game till till now and he's been so involved in IPL cricket over the years, he understands how bowlers think, how different bowling attacks think in terms of what their plans would be to you. So just having that tactical knowledge has really improved my game in terms of trying to you know preempt what the bowler's going to do and he's he has been always been really good at that and that's why he's been so successful," he said.

Padikkal played a key role in the team winning their maiden IPL title in the 2025 edition. He scored 247 runs from 10 games at a strike rate of 150.60 before being ruled out due to injury.