They simply know ‘okay he is supposed to provide me a bat’

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) star Devdutt Padikkal made a massive claim involving Virat Kohli ahead of the IPL 2026 auction. RCB are the defending champions. They won their first-ever IPL trophy in the 2025 edition.

Padikkal claimed that youngsters who walked into the dressing room would look to pick up Kohli’s bat and expect one from him. He revealed that youngsters these days would expect senior players to give them bats without having to ask for one. The left-hander added that they would want Kohli’s bat and try to replicate him.

“Everyone once they come into the dressing room especially in RCB, the first thing they do is go pick up Virat’s bat and try and emulate what he does on the field. Everyone wants one of his bats. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of guys in this dressing room as well. everyone that comes into the dressing room looks at the senior-most player on the side and expects them to give a bat. They don’t even ask them for a bat. They just know okay he’s supposed to give me a bat,” he said on the ‘RCB Podcast‘.

Notably, Kohli played a huge part in their maiden triumph. He was the leading run-getter for them with 657 runs from 15 games at an average of 54.75 and a strike rate of 144.71 with eight half-centuries.

Padikkal also revealed that Kohli was the DJ of the team. He stated that Kohli would roam around with the speaker all the time. Padikkal added that Kohli chose the playlist, and would dance around at all times in the dressing room.

Devdutt Padikkal on his inspiration as a left-handed batter

In the same podcast, the RCB star also spoke about former all-rounder Yuvraj Singh being his inspiration as a left-handed batter. Yuvraj remains among the greatest left-handers India has produced.

Padikkal hailed Yuvraj for his fearlessness, making a comeback after fighting cancer, and his batting style as a left-hander. He added that watching Yuvraj helped him change his game.

“It’s just his fearlessness. He’s fought through a lot of things in life and obviously all that that he did outside the cricket field is something amazing. But for me personally, when I watched him bat, it was just as a left-hander, I just loved watching him bat. You know, I feel a lot of uh left-handers, if you ask them who was the most good-looking left-hander to watch, it was probably Yuvraj Singh. The elegance with which he batted and I just love watching him bat. It helped me mould my game in terms of what I wanted to be as a left-hander,” he said.

Padikkal’s game saw a significant improvement in the IPL 2025 season. He played just 10 games and missed out further due to injury. However, he had a vital impact, scoring 247 runs at a strike rate of 150.60. He played a crucial role as well in helping the team lift their first IPL trophy.