Padikkal made 328 runs while Sudharsan was injured, and now Sudharsan is his vice-captain

When India needed a No. 3 for the Test tour of Sri Lanka, it was because Sai Sudharsan had a toe injury. Devdutt Padikkal took the slot, made 328 runs across three innings, and left with the player-of-the-series award from a 1-0 win. The BCCI has now named him captain of the India A side that meets Australia A in Puducherry. Sudharsan is his vice-captain.

The No. 3 question is still open

Both are left-handers who bat in the same part of the order, and both are in the same 15. Sudharsan was India’s first-choice No. 3 before the injury; Padikkal is the one who piled up runs in his absence, with hundreds in both Tests. Two four-day matches against a touring Australia A attack is the sort of stage where a selection argument gets settled, and the two men with most riding on it are the captain and his deputy.

Padikkal has been asked about that often enough to have an answer ready, and his version of it points at the job rather than the rivalry. “I’ve always wanted to make sure that the team wins,” he said. “As a captain, that’s your sole focus. You want to make the team win. That just helps my batting even further.”

A thin squad, and the reason is in the calendar

The red-ball squad is missing most of the names you would expect in an India A side, and that is a scheduling problem rather than a selection statement. The four-day matches run into the Irani Cup, which starts on October 1, and the men’s Asian Games T20 tournament in Japan, which occupies September 24 to October 3. Beyond Padikkal and Sudharsan, only the seamer Anshul Kamboj, the offspinner Tanush Kotian and the wicketkeeper N Jagadeesan have been near a recent India squad.

That leaves room for domestic performers who do not usually get this billing. Kumar Kushagra keeps in the four-day side after his 101 from 132 balls in the Duleep Trophy final, and Shams Mulani partners Kotian in the spin department. The seam group is Kamboj, Tushar Deshpande, Praful Hinge and Nachiket Bhute, with Vijaykumar Vyshak listed subject to fitness clearance.

Karnataka was the trial run

Padikkal has led before. He took over Karnataka during the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy season and the batting did not suffer for it. He made an unbeaten 120 from 85 balls in a fourth-innings chase of 250 against Punjab in Mohali, done inside 27.5 overs. In the semi-final against Uttarakhand in Lucknow he made a career-best 232, his first first-class double hundred, as Karnataka batted their way into the final.

“Leadership is something that I really enjoy doing, especially starting off with Karnataka last year,” the 26-year-old said. “It was a great learning curve for me, so I’m really looking forward to carrying that experience to the India A set-up as well.”

He also went out of his way to talk up the circuit he came through, which players rarely bother to do. “It takes a lot of hard work to go through the domestic grind,” he said. “There’s a lot of high-quality cricket going on in the domestic circuit. I think it’s not always noticed, but you can see that.”

Hardik Pandya, with an asterisk

The biggest name in the announcement is in the other squad. Hardik Pandya is in the one-day side subject to a fitness clearance, and he has not played since IPL 2026. He missed part of Mumbai Indians’ campaign with back spasms, then strained a leg while training at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru ahead of June’s ODI series against Afghanistan, which ruled him out of that too. He has not played a one-day international since the Champions Trophy final in March 2025.

India want him back in 50-over rhythm with a World Cup coming in October and November 2027, and they rate him as their most accomplished seam-bowling allrounder. Ruturaj Gaikwad captains the one-day side, with Padikkal stepping back to vice-captain. Rajat Patidar, Priyansh Arya, Naman Dhir and Prabhsimran Singh are in that squad too.

Where and when

Puducherry hosts all five fixtures. The first four-day game runs from September 22 to 25, the second from September 29 to October 2, and the one-dayers follow on October 6, October 9 and October 11.

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