Devdutt Padikkal scored 117 in the second Test at Colombo’s Sinhalese Sports Club on August 23, becoming the first India No. 3 to hit back-to-back centuries in away Tests since Cheteshwar Pujara struck 106 at the MCG and 193 at the SCG during the 2018/19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Padikkal had scored 167 in the first Test at Galle eight days earlier. His series total after three innings stands at 328 runs.
Sri Lanka dropped Padikkal twice before he had scored two runs in Colombo. The first chance came on 0, the second on 1. He responded with 117 off 193 balls, hitting 12 fours and using precise cuts off Prabath Jayasuriya as his primary scoring shot after reaching his century. At Galle, his 167 off 230 balls had included 12 fours and a six. Across both centuries, Padikkal batted for over 400 deliveries without a technical flaw that any bowler could consistently exploit.
India’s No. 3 position had been unstable since Pujara’s last Test in June 2023. Shubman Gill was the last No. 3 to score a Test century, against Bangladesh in Chennai in September 2024. In the 19 Tests that followed, seven batters were tried across 35 innings with an average of 27.28 and no centuries. Padikkal was not even first choice for this Sri Lanka tour. Sai Sudharsan was ruled out with a stress fracture of the toe before the series. Padikkal stepped into the gap.
“You can call it pure batting. He stuck with his approach and game from the first ball. It’s not like he played differently after the hundred. He played each ball on merit. He defended when required and attacked when required. We saw a pure batter playing.”
Ajay Jadeja, Sony Sports, after the Galle Test
DID YOU KNOW?
Before Devdutt Padikkal, the last India No. 3 to score centuries in back-to-back away Tests was Cheteshwar Pujara in the 2018/19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy
#DevduttPadikkal #INDvsSL pic.twitter.com/FJqwBWILK2— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) August 23, 2026
Mohammad Kaif pointed out after the Galle innings that Padikkal scored 100 of his runs off the back foot at a strike rate of 86. His front-foot scoring produced 40 runs off 76 balls at a strike rate of 52. A No. 3 batter who scores heavily off the back foot can handle pace, bounce, and lateral movement. That is not a skill set limited to spinning tracks in Galle and Colombo. It is the skill set that determines survival in Australia and England.
What Padikkal’s Back Foot Tells You About India’s No. 3 Future
The Pujara comparison extends beyond consecutive away centuries. Pujara held the No. 3 position through sheer volume of balls faced. He absorbed time, wore bowlers out, and removed scoring opportunities from the equation over hundreds of deliveries. Padikkal’s centuries came at strike rates above 60 in both innings. He is not absorbing time. He is scoring off the back foot with controlled aggression, finding gaps through cover and behind square with a low grip and a dominant bottom hand. When a batter instinctively stays back on a turning track in Sri Lanka rather than planting the front foot, it tells you something specific: his weight transfer and pickup position will hold up when the ball is arriving at 140kph on a bouncy surface. That is a fundamentally different version of the No. 3 role, and it may suit how modern Indian cricket operates better than the Pujara model did.
India have not had a left-handed No. 3 with this combination since Sourav Ganguly. Padikkal is only the second left-hander after Ganguly to score a Test century at No. 3 for India in the 21st century. The next examination comes in sterner conditions, but the technical foundation is already visible.
Padikkal’s form did not arrive from nowhere. He scored 232 against Uttarakhand and an unbeaten 120 against Punjab in the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy. On India A’s tour of Sri Lanka, he made back-to-back fifties. In the warm-up match against the SLC XI in Colombo, he scored an unbeaten 142.
250+ RUNS & COUNTING FOR DEVDUTT PADIKKAL IN SRI LANKA TEST SERIES 🔥🎯 pic.twitter.com/UATRKnjRCk
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) August 23, 2026
India reached 300/5 at stumps on Day 1 of the second Test. Captain Shubman Gill scored 50 and shared a 120-run third-wicket partnership with Padikkal off 209 balls before Asitha Fernando dismissed him. Fernando finished with three wickets. Debutant Saransh Jain and Dhruv Jurel remained unbeaten at the close.
Also Read:
- Manav Suthar’s Bowling Spell Breakdown at Galle
- Sarfaraz Khan’s India Comeback for Sri Lanka Tour
- Jaiswal’s Run Out and Collision with the Bowler at Galle
- Rahane on India’s Defensive Approach in Sri Lanka Tests
- Auqib Nabi Replaces Bumrah for Sri Lanka Tests
- Jadeja Reaches 350 Test Wickets
- Pant Playing Strangely, Jurel Pressure
- Saransh Jain’s Age and Maiden India Test
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