Malayali batting fireworks in Galle; Padikkal joins elite club with new feat

GALLE: Devdutt Padikkal scored his first international century two years after making his Test debut. In these two years, Devdutt played just three matches. The Malayali made his Test debut against England in Dharamsala in March 2024, and now, in his third Test, he proved his mettle by completing a century of 134 (178).

With this century, Padikkal also joined former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly in a rare achievement. Padikkal is the eighth Indian player to score a century while batting at number three in Test cricket. Salim Durrani, who scored 104 runs in the Port of Spain Test against the West Indies in April 1962, was the first Indian batsman to achieve this feat. Then came Bapu Nadkarni (122), Ajit Wadekar, Eknath Solkar, Surinder Amarnath, Vinod Kambli and Sourav Ganguly. In addition, Padikkal became the second Indian to score a Test century on Independence Day. Virat Kohli was the only Indian to achieve this feat earlier.

Before Padikkal, Ganguly was the last batsman to score a century at number three for India. Ganguly had scored 136 runs in a Test against Zimbabwe in Delhi in 2002. Padikkal also completed a century in the first innings of a warm-up match against Sri Lanka Cricket XI last week. Devdutt Padikkal got the chance to bat in the playing XI at number 10 after Sai Sudarshan was ruled out due to injury.