In the fifth game between India and England being played at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala, young Indian batter Devdutt Padikkal made his debut and left everyone impressed with his solid 65.
The debutant got 10 fours and one six in his 65-run knock off 103 balls. Padikkal was bowled out by Shoaib Bashir.
Padikkal’s participation in the match wasn’t confirmed until the previous night. The Indian team management strongly supported Rajat Patidar despite his challenging start in Test cricket. However, a net session injury on the eve of the game changed the course of events. Padikkal received confirmation of Patidar’s unavailability only in the morning, but had received a hint earlier that understandably affected his sleep.
“I think regardless of when you get to know, there’re always thoughts in your head, there’s always going to be nervousness around it. So that was still there. I got a message saying there could be a possibility I could be playing on the previous night itself. I was nervous from that time. It was a tough night’s sleep,” Padikkal said, after marking this nervous outing with a half-century. “But that’s how it is. It is something you also enjoy at the same time, you want to live for those days, so I am really happy.”
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Padikkal made a nervous start and was getting difficult to middle it from the bat.
“Every boundary was very enjoyable, even the edges. Probably the first edge that I got, which went behind for a four, that was probably the most enjoyable to be honest because those were my first runs,” Padikkal said.
