Devdutt Padikkal’s bat kept hitting balls to pile up runs for the Indian side on Day 2 of the first Test game. The Indian men under the captaincy of Shubman Gill are currently touring Sri Lanka for a two-game series, with their historic 600th Test having kicked off on Saturday, August 15. After choosing to bat first, the visitors received an early blow as their opener Yashasvi Jaiswal had to walk back at just 32. While KL Rahul tried to get things under control, even he had to retire due to severe camp.
However, Padikkal, who came in to bat at No. 3 ended up recording his maiden Test century on Day 1, before taking that score to 150 and joining an elite list. Padikkal resumed batting on the second day at 131, and ended up scoring 150 before being dismissed at 167 off a Prabath Jayasuriya delivery. The 26-year-old batter hit a total of 15 boundaries and one six, while batting at the strike rate of 72.61. With this, he also joined an elite list of batters including the likes of Rahul Dravid and Cheteshwar Pujara to become the only third batter to score 150-plus while batting at No. 3.
Before him, Dravid scored 177 in Ahmedabad in 2009, while Pujara’s historic knock came in 2017 when he scored 153 in Galle. Padikkal, who stepped in at No. 3 in place of an injured Sai Sudharsan, has solidified his position with his marvelous knock. Earlier during the warm-up game, he scored a century, putting up a remarkable display of batting prowess.
I Dreamt of This Moment: Devdutt Padikkal Reflects on Maiden Test Century
Earlier during the opening day, Padikkal scored his maiden Test century and looking back at it, he said that he had dreamt of that moment for very long. “I've dreamt of this moment. For the last two years, I've been working really hard to try and make sure that when I get that opportunity, I can do something special like this, and I'm really happy to do that,” said Padikkal.
Talking about the ability to convert the tons into big ones, he said, “I think honestly, it's just the hunger to score more runs. I just enjoy batting out there, and the moment you get to 100, it's easy to relax and feel that relief. But it's important that for me, the next 20-30 balls are the really important phase that I try and make sure that I'm completely focused, completely there. I think when I get past those first 10 balls after 100, I think it makes my job a whole lot easier. And over the years, I've seen so many cricketers get big runs, get big hundreds, especially back in Karnataka. So just watching them bat makes me want to do the same.”
By stumps of Day 2, India put up 460 with the loss of nine wickets with Kuldeep Yadav and Prasidh Krishna batting at 12* and 1*, respectively.
