SL vs IND 2021: Devdutt Padikkal becomes first Men’s Cricketer born in 2000s to play for India

India’s left-handed talented Devdutt Padikkal has become the first Men’s cricketer born in this century to play for the national side. The southpaw batsman from Karnataka played his first International match as nine Indian players had to go into isolation after they were identified as close contacts with Krunal Pandya, who was tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday and thus the second T20I was postponed.

However, Padikkal couldn’t grab his chance on his T20I debut as he scored 29 runs from 23 balls but couldn’t convert his start into substantial score. Furthermore, the southpaw, who plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, was dismissed after scoring nine runs in the third and final T20I as he was plumbed in front by Ramesh Mendis.

Not only Devdutt Padikkal made his debut for the national team but also Ruturaj Gaikwad, Nitish Rana and Chetan Sakariya were handed their maiden T20I cap. However, none of the debutantes were able to grab their chances as they could not get going.

India could only manage 132 runs on the board in the second T20I after Dasun Shanaka won the toss and decided to bowl first. The Indian bowlers did come up with a decent performance but their fielding let the team down as they could not grab their chances in the field.

Dhananjaya de Silva played a match winning unbeaten knock of 40 runs and took his team over the line. On the other hand, Kuldeep Yadav scalped two wickets and also didn’t have the rub of the green on his side as Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Sanju Samson fluffed catches of his bowling.

Meanwhile, India is struggling to get going in the third T20 as they have lost five wickets and have scored 39 runs in the first 10 overs.