Sometimes, it takes just one shot to encapsulate a batter's uniqueness. On Saturday, in the middle session of day one of the Galle Test, Devdutt Padikkal played one such shot to go from 51 to 55.
He played it off a good-length ball from Prabath Jayasuriya, delivered from left-arm around to the left-hand batter, pitching on middle stump or thereabouts and turning towards the top of leg or thereabouts. A left-arm spinner does not expect such a ball to be punched through the covers, but that's what Padikkal did to it, stepping back and away from the line with the fleetest of movements - the toe of his back foot was outside off stump when the ball landed, and both his feet were well outside leg stump when he connected with his shot - and bisecting extra-cover and deep cover point.
This kind of shot is typically the preserve of small, nimble top-order players who compensate for their lack of reach with extreme facility off the back foot. Padikkal is anything but small. At 6'3", he is among the tallest frontline batters to have played for India. But where tall batters typically make ample use of their stride and reach against spin to get close to the pitch of the ball, Padikkal hangs back almost by default, and creates scoring opportunities square of the wicket by using the depth of his crease.
It's the oddest of quirks that India's latest Test-match No. 3 and man he took the place of, B Sai Sudharsan, are both tall left-hand batters who camp on the back foot against spin.
Padikkal would probably not have played this Test match had Sai Sudharsan not been ruled out with a stress fracture of the toe. Sai Sudharsan had scored two 80s in his last five Test innings, and warmed up nicely for this trip to Sri Lanka by scoring centuries in back-to-back games on India A's shadow tour of the country.
But injury to Sai Sudharsan had given Padikkal his tryst with destiny on August 15, and here he was, waving his flag vigorously. He rocked right back to pull the first ball he faced for four, jumped out of his crease to launch the sixth ball he faced for a steepling straight six, and did not look back thereafter.
This is a batter who, after a slow start in first-class cricket, has understood his own game inside-out, unlocked his full potential, and has grown supremely confident in his methods. This is a batter in the form of his red-ball life, who came into this game with scores of 120*, 232, 67 and 94 in his last eight first-class innings and an unbeaten 142 in the Indians' non-first-class warm-up game against an SLC XI last week.
There's nothing inevitable about any Test hundred, but there was nothing remotely surprising about the fact that Padikkal made one on day one of this series, in good batting conditions, and against a Sri Lanka attack that lacked both Test-match experience and Test-match exposure over the last 12 months or so.
The one thing this Galle pitch offered the bowlers was turn: 3.8 degrees on average in the first session, and upwards of 4 degrees in the second and third. Sri Lanka's spinners tested all of India's batters when they landed it right, with debutant offspinner Keshara Nuwantha testing Padikkal's outside edge on multiple occasions. A spin attack with better control of length could have given India's top order a thorough examination.
As it turned out, Sri Lanka's six bowlers took only one wicket across the 73 overs of day one, and created no other clear-cut chances. Padikkal, having shown his intentions early and spread the fields, cruised to 131* at a 70-plus strike rate despite only scoring 41% of his runs in boundaries. It was the most clinical of displays from a batter playing just his third Test match.
And you couldn't have grudged Padikkal the circumstances of this innings, particularly if you remembered the circumstances of his last Test match, against Australia in Perth in November 2024. He had made a 23-ball duck in the first innings of that game and struggled to put bat to ball against Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood in treacherous conditions. He was only playing that game because Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill weren't available.
Padikkal's previous Test-match chance, his debut against England in Dharamsala, had also come about when senior batters were missing - Virat Kohli and KL Rahul in that instance. Padikkal had scored a half-century in that match and had to sit out five Tests before he got his next chance. Then he had played in Perth and sat out 14 Tests before playing this one in Galle. This is what it means to be an up-and-coming cricketer vying for a top-order place in India's Test line-up.
Everything about Padikkal's display on Saturday suggested he belongs at this level: his balance at the crease, the precision of his movements, his ability to manipulate the ball into gaps either side of the wicket with skillful use of his wrists, and above all the sense he gave of being able to score rapidly while appearing to bat within himself. And yet, India would be perfectly justified if they chose to slot Sai Sudharsan straight back into their XI at Padikkal's expense as soon as he becomes available again.
Who would you pick? Sai Sudharsan is a tall, crouched left-hander with a bat-down stance who plays late, and whose head position makes him an excellent judge of balls in the corridor but also potentially vulnerable to lbw and other full-and-straight dismissals. Padikkal is a tall, upright left-hander who looks well-equipped to handle pace and bounce on hard pitches but could potentially be troubled by movement, particularly the kind that can square up batters with minimal footwork. Both are unusually back-foot-oriented against spin.
Sai Sudharsan is 24 and averages just under 43 in first-class cricket. Padikkal is 26, and this century pushed his first-class average above 44. Both made slow starts to their red-ball career; both are getting to the point where they have worked out their own methods and are beginning to pile on the runs.
There's very little in this contest, and both would perhaps find places in other Test-match top orders around the world. There isn't quite so much room in India's line-up, but Padikkal has made the clearest possible statement that he can fit right in, as and when he gets the chance.