Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Director of Cricket Mo Bobat has named Devdutt Padikkal as a potential captaincy option for the franchise. Rajat Patidar was appointed as RCB’s captain ahead of IPL 2025 and the Madhya Pradesh batter has led the franchise to two back-to-back titles.

Meanwhile, Padikkal played a key role in taking RCB to glory in IPL 2026. The left-hander from Karnataka, scored 464 runs in 15 innings at an average of 33.14 and an impressive strike rate of 168.72 in 19th edition of the competition.

The southpaw played with an aggressive approach throughout the tournament and delivered the goods for the franchise.

“We wanted him to really push the boundaries of his intent, and to really deliver an impact. We had Salty (Salt) and Virat going pretty hard at the top, and we wanted Dev (Padikkal) to continue that momentum when he came to the crease. And to his credit, he’s totally bought into that and embraced that. And he’s batted very selflessly, and I think that’s huge credit to Dev,” Bobat said in RCB’s documentary series RCB’s Trophy Quest.

“I’ve also been really impressed with him as a character. I think he’s very leaderful, actually. I think he’s a potential captain of the future,” Bobat further added.

In IPL 2025, Padikkal scored 247 runs in 10 matches of IPL 2025 at an average of 27.44 and a strike rate of 150.60 before he was ruled out ahead of the playoffs.

Padikkal has also performed consistently in the domestic circuit for Karnataka. He amassed 725 runs in nine matches of Vijay Hazare Trophy 2025-26 season at a stunning average of 90.62 and a strike rate of 98.24. Furthermore, he amassed 543 runs in six Ranji Trophy matches at an average of 60.33 in the previous season.