Devdutt Padikkal strengthened his case for a place in India’s playing eleven for the opening Test with an unbeaten century on the second day of the warm-up match against Sri Lanka Cricket XI, while Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel failed to capitalise on favourable batting conditions.
India finished the day on 357 for 8 after 90 overs, with Padikkal unbeaten on 142 and Ravindra Jadeja scoring 63 before retiring out. Manav Suthar also contributed 41 in his first overseas assignment for India.
B Sai Sudharsan was on Saturday ruled out of the two-Test series against Sri Lanka after failing to recover from a big toe injury. No replacement has been named yet.
Batting conditions eased as the pitch improved, and Padikkal took advantage, hitting 18 boundaries as he pushed for a place at number three following Sai Sudharsan’s withdrawal from the series because of a toe injury.
Yashasvi Jaiswal fell for a duck from the second delivery of the day, attempting to drive at left-arm seamer Vishwa Fernando (1-42). Padikkal and KL Rahul then added 96 for the second wicket, with Rahul scoring 40.
Padikkal settled quickly, scoring through the off side before using the pull shot against short deliveries from both pacers and spinners. He also targeted right-arm pacer Ishitha Wijesundara, while a pull off off-spinner Ramesh Mendis brought up his century from 121 balls. Padikkal added 72 for the third wicket with Jadeja before retiring out, with the all-rounder again providing support in the middle order.
Pant made two before attempting to hit Mendis (2-77) against the turn over long-on. He got a leading edge that was caught at long-off.
Jurel fell for one soon afterwards, edging a forward defensive shot off Mendis to the fielder at short square leg, who took the catch at the second attempt. Suthar then joined Jadeja and the pair added 76 to steady India’s innings. Padikkal returned late in the day and added four more boundaries before retiring out alongside Saransh Jain, who made 22.
