Padikkal Made 328 Runs in Three Innings and Passed a Record Fleming Set
Two centuries, an average above 109, and the most runs by a visiting number three in a two-Test series in Sri Lanka. His first Test since November 2024 turned into the series of his career.
Devdutt Padikkal was named player of the series in India's 1-0 win in Sri Lanka, having made 328 runs in three innings at an average above 109.
The two innings
At Galle he made 167, his maiden Test century, in a match India won by 165 runs. At the SSC in Colombo he made 117 on the opening day.
Centuries in consecutive Tests makes him the sixth Indian to do it in Sri Lanka. The 328 runs are the most by a visiting number three in a two-match Test series in Sri Lanka, passing the 307 Stephen Fleming made.
The context that makes it larger
It was his first Test since November 2024.
Players returning after a two-year absence from a format do not usually produce their best cricket immediately, and number three against spin in Sri Lanka is not the position or the venue where a returning batter would choose to be tested. He has credited consistency in first-class cricket for the transition, which is the unglamorous explanation and probably the correct one.
A record with an asterisk worth naming
The visiting-number-three record is a genuine achievement and also a narrow category. Two-match series in Sri Lanka are not common, and the number of visiting batters who have occupied that position across one is small. It is the kind of record that sounds larger than the population it was measured over, and we would rather point that out than let it do more work than it can.
What is not narrow is 328 runs in three innings against a spin attack in Asia, or two hundreds in consecutive Tests.
His own reading of it
He has said the Colombo draw took some of the shine off, and that a win there would have been better. India declared on 503 for 9, enforced the follow-on, and could not force a result against Sonal Dinusha's twin centuries, which we covered in our report on the Colombo draw.
A player finishing a series with two hundreds and a player-of-the-series award, and leading with what the team did not get, is either a very good habit or very good media training. On the evidence of the runs, it is the first.