Devdutt Padikkal shines on Test debut, slams 65 versus England
Devdutt Padikkal has made an impressive start to his Test career as he slammed a fine half-century in his debut innings. The southpaw batted with great intent on Day 2 of the fifth and final Test against England in Dharamsala. With the help of 10 boundaries and a maximum, he ended up scoring 65 off 103 balls. Here are his stats.
A fine knock from Padikkal
India were well placed at 275/2 when Padikkal arrived to bat. However, the hosts lost centurions Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill in quick succession as England would have aimed to clean up the inexperienced middle order. However, Padikkal and Sarfaraz Ahmed (56) dented their plans with a 97-run stand for the fourth wicket. Both batters, however, fell to young spinner Shoaib Bashir.
Here are his stats
Playing his 32nd FC game, Padikkal has raced to 2,292 runs at an average of 44-plus. While this was his 13th fifty in the format, he also boasts six tons. His highest score of 193 came against Punjab in the 2024 Ranji Trophy in January. Notably, Padikkal has also played a couple of T20Is for India (both in 2021), managing 38 runs.
Three tons for Padikkal in the 2024 Ranji Trophy campaign
Padikkal received his maiden Test call-up ahead of the third Test of the ongoing series in Rajkot. He replaced the injured KL Rahul in the squad. The left-handed Karnataka batter racked up 556 runs from six innings at an incredible average of 92.66 in the 2024 Ranji Trophy season. His tally includes three tons, including a career-best 193 against Punjab.
How has the match proceeded?
Batting first, England started well and were going along fine at 175/3 before India triggered a collapse (218/10). Kuldeep Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin shared nine scalps. Zak Crawley made 79. In reply, the hosts have gone past 400 thanks to centuries from Shubman Gill (110) and Rohit Sharma (103). Besides Padikkal, Yashasvi Jaiswal (57) and Sarfaraz (56) also slammed fifties.
Do you know?
This is now the fourth occasion of each of India's top-five batters scoring 50 or more in a Test innings. The 1998 Kolkata Test versus Australia, the 1999 Mohali game versus New Zealand, and the 2009 Mumbai (Brabourne) Test against Sri Lanka are the other games that witnessed this milestone.
