S ix balls. That's all it took Devdutt Padikkal to tell you what kind of day this was going to be. He pulled the first one for four. Charged the sixth and lofted it over long-on for six. By the close of play on August 15, at the end of day one in Galle, he was sitting on 131 not out, and India's selectors had a headache they probably weren't expecting to have this week.
It came in the middle session, on 51. Prabath Jayasuriya, bowling around the wicket, landed one on a good length and it gripped and turned in off the surface. Most left-handers in that position defend, or try to work it away through midwicket if they're feeling brave.
Padikkal did neither. He went back and away, cleared himself outside off, and punched it through the gap between extra cover and deep point. By the time he made contact, his back foot had drifted outside off stump and his front foot was somewhere near leg. Not exactly textbook. Very effective.
Here's the odd part. Padikkal is 6'3". Tall batters are supposed to use their height to get forward, smother the spin, kill it at source. He does almost the opposite sits back, buys himself extra fractions of a second, and manufactures room square of the wicket instead of driving through the line. It shouldn't really work for someone his size. On Saturday it looked like the most natural thing in the world.
Funny thing is, Sai Sudharsan, the man he's currently deputising for, plays a version of the same game. Different technique, similar back-foot instinct against spin. Two tall left-handers, both allergic to using their reach the conventional way.
Padikkal only walked into this Test because Sudharsan fractured a bone in his toe — and that's a rough break, quite literally, for a batter who'd scored two half-centuries in his last five Test innings and then rattled off back-to-back hundreds on India A's shadow tour of Sri Lanka just before this series. Bad timing for Sudharsan. Very good timing for Padikkal.
This is basically how his Test career has gone so far. He debuted in Dharamsala against England, filling in for Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, made a fifty, and then sat out the next five Tests.
His second chance came in Perth against Australia in November 2024, again as cover, this time for Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. It did not go well. A 23-ball duck against Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, on a pitch doing plenty, and then a wait of 14 Tests before anyone picked him again.
Compare that to the form he brought into this match. Scores of 120 not out, 232, 67 and 94 in his last eight first-class innings. An unbeaten 142 in the tour warm-up game last week. This wasn't someone hoping to rediscover his touch in the middle of a Test. He turned up already in the middle of a purple patch.
Galle wasn't easy, either, at least not on paper. The pitch turned from ball one, averaging close to 4 degrees in the first session and picking up more bite as the day wore on. Sri Lanka's debutant offspinner Keshara Nuwantha beat Padikkal's outside edge more than once. There was enough here, in theory, to give India's top order a proper examination.
It just didn't happen. Sri Lanka's six bowlers managed one wicket across 73 overs and didn't create much else. Padikkal scored at a shade over 70, and less than half his runs came in boundaries, which tells you this wasn't some slog-fest it was calculated, controlled, aggressive only when the ball allowed it.
This is where it gets tricky for India. Sudharsan is 24, averages just under 43 in first-class cricket, bats low and crouched, plays the ball late, and reads length out of the hand as well as almost anyone, but that same setup can leave him open to anything full and straight. Padikkal is 26, now averaging above 44 after Saturday, stands tall and upright, looks built for pace and bounce, but might struggle more against seam movement that squares him up.
Honestly, there's not much between them. Both had slow starts. Both have spent years figuring out their own games the hard way. And once Sudharsan is fit again, someone in the Indian setup is going to have to leave a Test match hundred out of the XI, which, for once, is a problem worth having.
Devdutt Padikkal made an unbeaten 131 on the opening day of the Galle Test against Sri Lanka, stepping in at No. 3 for the injured Sai Sudharsan. Despite a pitch offering real turn and early trouble from Sri Lanka's spinners, he took apart an inexperienced attack with a mix of back-foot invention and calculated aggression.
Riding a hot run of first-class form into the match, his innings has left India with a genuine selection dilemma once Sudharsan recovers.
