India 288 for 2 (Padikkal 131*, Rahul 77*) vs Sri Lanka
India ended their 20-Test wait for a century from No. 3 on a dominant but rain-curtailed first day with Devdutt Padikkal coming back into the team with a commanding unbeaten 131 off 178 balls. When Padikkal brought up his century, at the other end was Shubman Gill, India’s last centurion from No. 3 and on the day the only wicket a bowler took, even though five men batted for India. Yashasvi Jaiswal was run-out for 32 when he looked good for a big score, and KL Rahul retired hurt with a forearm cramp on 77 as India scored 288 runs on a day that was cut short to 73 overs thanks to two rain breaks.
What will worry Sri Lanka, who have lost each of their last five home Tests against India, is that there was turn available even though flatness was expected out of the track. Especially in the second hour and towards the stump, spinners got appreciable turn, which might suggest it wasn’t the early moisture at play. There was a good chance this could become the typical Galle turner towards the end of the Test.
When it all started, though, Gill won only his third toss in nine Tests as captain and sent Jaiswal and Rahul to bat on a proper beauty with no swing or seam available for the new ball. At the stroke of the first hour, Sri Lanka benefitted from the only mode of dismissal that had seemed possible: a run-out. Rahul hit debutant offspinner Keshara Nuwantha to deep mid-on and set off for what looked like an easy single but found Jaiswal on the ground as Nuwantha dived into him. Jaiswal got up and set off, possibly cue for Rahul to keep going but stopped after one step. Both ended up at the non-striker’s end, but Jaiswal didn’t compete with Rahul to make it back first. Wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella, making a comeback after three years, looked at his captain for any spirit-of-cricket doubts, and proceeded to claim a wicket that was rightfully theirs.
It brought in another comeback, Padikkal, who last played on a treacherous track in Perth two years ago and scored a 23-ball duck and a 71-ball 25. Probably deserving the best conditions of this Test as law of averages, he hit a six and scored 21 by the time he faced 23 balls here. This was also the time when the ball was doing a bit for the spinners, but he was assisted by the odd leg-side delivery, which he gracefully glanced away for fours.
Much like B Sai Sudharsan, the No. 3 whose foot injury made this comeback possible, Padikkal preferred to stay back to spin, but unlike Sai Sudharsan he did seem to have more attacking options from deep inside the crease. He also mixed it up with the periodic charge down the wicket or the sweep to not let the spinners settle into any kind of threatening rhythm.
At the other end, Padikkal’s Karnataka team-mate Rahul used the method he has successfully employed to seamers against spin: play for the straight ball and don’t follow with your hands the ones that turn. Like Padikkal, he too charged Prabath Jayasuriya and hit him for a straight six. It did seem to be a plan to upset Sri Lanka’s biggest threat, who also happens to be slow in the air, which allows the batter to step out of the crease.
It was the inaccurate Nuwantha who kept producing deliveries that looked like they could get wickets. In the 43rd over, he got some dip and turn to draw a bat-pad from Rahul, already on 52, but the ball fell to the left of short leg. In the 46th, he draw an outside edge from Padikkal on forward-defence but it didn’t carry to slip. Overall he drew the most false shots – 18 – but was also inconsistent, which kept releasing the pressure as he went for 98 in his 21 overs.
Padikkal was always ready and willing to cash in on errors in length, comfortably out-pacing the more classic Rahul. A cramp in the arm towards tea possibly made Rahul get more urgent with the scoring as he took 13 off the last nine balls he faced in the session.
Rahul tried to resume post tea, but struggled to even hold the bat properly. He was replaced by someone who tends to struggle with cramps, but Gill didn’t last long enough to test that aspect of his fitness. He continued with what seemed like a plan to charge and attack Jayasuriya but was beaten in the flight and holed out to deep mid-off for 16. Not before he had unfurled two sumptuous cover-drives and seen Padikkal get his maiden Test hundred.
Padikkal was squared up twice with turn from the leg stump for Nuwantha, he got that one edge that fell short, but outside that he was sublime especially with his tempo of scoring. It was his ability to attack from the back foot that produced the overpitched deliveries that could get him easy singles, one of which brought up his hundred.
A second rain break left Padikkal and Rishabh Pant a possibly tricky 40 minutes to play out. They ended up adding 48 runs in those thanks to the poor length control from the spinners even though the ball turned 4.5 degrees on average in the final session. Turn of 3.8, 4.2 and 4.5 degrees in the first three sessions on day one is something that will definitely be a concern for Sri Lanka as they bat deeper into this Test.
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