Devdutt Padikkal

He first drew attention in the 2017 Karnataka Premier League, hitting 72 off 53 balls for Ballari Tuskers. He scored heavily for Karnataka Under-19s, but a loss of form and self-doubt followed. He recovered to make 829 runs in the 2018 Cooch Behar Trophy, fourth most in the competition, and the Karnataka State Cricket Association named him its best batsman. He was then picked for the state's senior Vijay Hazare Trophy squad and for an India Under-19 tour of Sri Lanka.

Royal Challengers Bangalore signed him at 19 before the 2019 IPL, but he did not play as the side won 5 of 14 games and finished bottom. In the 2019-20 Vijay Hazare Trophy he opened with 58 against Jharkhand, made his first List A hundred against Saurashtra and an unbeaten century against Goa in the next match, and topped the run charts with 609. That earned him an India A place for the Deodhar Trophy.

The 2020 IPL, staged in the UAE, was his breakthrough. Opening with Virat Kohli, he became the only IPL batter to post three fifties in his first four games, and finished with 473 runs from 15 matches and the Emerging Player of the Year award. In 2021 he made his maiden IPL hundred, an unbeaten 101 against Rajasthan Royals in a 10-wicket win, and again passed 400 runs. He made his India T20I debut on the 2021 tour of Sri Lanka.

Released by RCB before the 2022 mega auction, he joined Rajasthan Royals for 7.75 crores after a bidding contest, scoring 637 runs in 28 matches at 24.11 across two seasons. In 2024 he was traded to Lucknow Super Giants for fast bowler Avesh Khan and averaged 5.43 that season. In February 2024 he joined India's Test squad for the rest of the England series in place of the injured KL Rahul, and scored 65 in his first Test innings.