India, March 30 -- Devdutt Padikkal regally whipped pacer Jaydev Unadkat's full ball on his pads over backward square leg for a six.

It was not an unusual sight for a batter for whom flick forms one of the bread-and-butter shots.

But it was unprecedented because Devdutt has seldom hit a six off the first ball. The left-hander tends to settle down before unleashing himself on the bowlers.

However, the left-hander shed his linear nature against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2026 opener here on Saturday, and it was just the beginning.

In the next 10 balls he faced, Devdutt produced two more sixes and three fours, racing to 34 in 11 balls, strike-rate hovering over 300.

In fact, his 26-ball 61 was representative of the transformation ha...