Padikkal’s first Test hundred is India’s first at No. 3 by a left-hander since Ganguly
Devdutt Padikkal reached three figures off 134 balls in Galle after Yashasvi Jaiswal was run out in a tangle with the bowler and KL Rahul retired hurt on 77 with severe cramps.
Aug 15, 2026
Devdutt Padikkal was not meant to be batting at No. 3 in Galle. Sai Sudharsan’s injury opened the seat up, and on Saturday Padikkal sat down in it and played the innings of his Test career, a first hundred in the format that also closed off a gap India have been carrying since Sourav Ganguly.
India won the toss on the opening morning of the first of two Tests and chose to bat. By the closing overs of a day that rain kept chopping into pieces, they were past 270 with two wickets down and Padikkal still there, unbeaten past 110.
The strangest way to lose an opener
Yashasvi Jaiswal went for 32 off 37 balls, and not to a bowler. On the last ball of the 11th over, KL Rahul pushed Keshara Nuwantha towards mid-on and called Jaiswal through for a single. Nuwantha dived to cut the ball off and Jaiswal, backing up, got tangled with him and went down. He picked himself up, changed his mind about the run, and turned back for the bowler’s end. Rahul was already there. Both batters finished at the same end, Rahul grounded his bat first, and Jaiswal was the one given out.
India were 101 for 1 at lunch off 27 overs, Rahul and Padikkal rebuilding without much fuss. Rain then took 80 minutes out of the afternoon and play only restarted at 2pm local time, with the officials resetting the day at 86 overs.
Rahul made 77 and could not hold the bat
Rahul and Padikkal put on 150 for the second wicket, which is the sort of stand that usually decides a Galle Test on day one. Rahul got to 77 off 162 balls and then had to leave.
The trouble had shown up before tea, when a cramp in his right forearm brought the physio out in the 51st over. At the start of the third session he signalled to the umpires almost immediately: contractions in his left hand and wrist, and no way to grip the bat properly. He walked off retired hurt with India 197 for 1 in 53 overs. Retired hurt rather than out, which means he can come back later in the innings once the cramps settle, and in this heat that is not a small detail.
Padikkal’s hundred, and the name attached to it
Padikkal reached three figures off 134 balls with India 219 for 1 after 57 overs, and got a standing ovation for it. He is the first India left-hander to make a Test century batting at No. 3 since Ganguly, which tells you both how long India have looked for someone to own that position and how few left-handers they have tried there.
He made his Test debut against England in March 2024 and has spent most of the time since then waiting. A hundred in the tour game last week was the argument for picking him ahead of the alternatives. This is the answer to it.
Gill went, and so did the weather
Shubman Gill came in for Rahul and lasted 28 balls for 16. Prabath Jayasuriya got him with a mistimed lofted drive that went straight to mid-off, the left-arm spinner’s first wicket after 45 overs without one. Rishabh Pant walked out next, and rain interrupted things again shortly afterwards.
India’s XI reads Jaiswal, Rahul, Padikkal, Gill, Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Manav Suthar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna. Sarfaraz Khan, called up when Sudharsan was ruled out, did not make it.
Sri Lanka spent the opening day watching a batsman they had not planned for occupy most of it. With Rahul still able to return and Pant yet to get going, the first session on Sunday is already the most important one of their series.