Why Is Devdutt Padikkal Not In RCB's Playing XI Vs RR In IPL 2025 Match?

Why Padikkal was dropped [Source: AP Photo]

The all-important Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru is set to take place at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Both the sides will be gunning for victory and the two teams boslter a strong playing XI for the match set to begin at 3:30 PM. However, RCB sprung a surprise at the toss by excluding their X-factor from the playing XI.

Why no Padikkal in RCB playing XI?

At the toss time, Rajat Patidar, the RCB captain stated that Suyash Sharma comes in place of Devdutt Padikkal and it raised quite a few eyebrows since Padikkal was doing well for the Red Army. So, why was he dropped?.

Padikkal was named in the Impact Subs list and RCB will bat second in this crucial IPL 2025 match. In the second innings, the team will need an extra batter to chase down the target and hence, Patidar will most likely bring in Padikkal as the Impact Substitute. So, technically, the Karnakata batter has not been dropped, but is more of a technical move.

How Padikkal has fared in IPL 2025?

In 5 matches he has accumulated 79 runs, but most importantly has a strike-rate of 138.60. He has done well in bits and pieces and will be an important player in the run-chase for the RCB team which needs to win this contest.

RCB Playing XI Vs RR

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Playing XI: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal

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