Padikkal hits the high notes after some quiet seasons

After Devdutt Padikkal went from 88 to a century with a punchy sequence of 6,4,4 off Tamil Nadu captain R Sai Kishore, he pumped his fist, spun around, and then raised his bat to acknowledge the cheers from a crowd of almost 1000 on Friday afternoon at Chepauk.

Padikkal countered everything that Tamil Nadu threw at him. Sandeep Warrier smacked him on his helmet and unprotected shoulder, but he shook those blows off and hooked him away to the boundary. When M Mohammed went much fuller and attacked the stumps, Padikkal repeatedly pumped him over his head. It prompted Sai Kishore to station himself - the tallest fielder on the park - at straight long-on, almost right behind the bowler.

Despite Sai Kishore taking a leaf out of MS Dhoni's playbook, Padikkal kept launching the ball in the arc between midwicket and long-on. With both the Tamil Nadu left-arm spinners - Sai Kishore and Ajith Ram turning the ball into him - Padikkal took calculated risks to disrupt their lengths and lines.

"I was just waiting for them to flight it up a little bit," Padikkal said at his post-day press conference. "Both of them are really good bowlers and both of them were bowling really consistently in those [good] areas. So, we were just waiting for them to flight it up a little bit more and trying to make use of that opportunity because whenever those opportunities come, you have to score runs off them. Otherwise, you will probably get stuck."

Padikkal had walked out to bat at No.3 after his captain Mayank Agarwal was castled by Sai Kishore for 20. He is primarily an opening batter, but has been batting largely at No.3 in the past two domestic seasons to let the more experienced Agarwal and R Samarth do their thing at the top.

"It's just the way our team is set up," Padikkal said. "I don't mind batting at No.3 and I don't mind opening either. So that doesn't really make a huge difference. So I just want to make sure wherever I bat, I contribute to the team."

An acute intestinal issue over the past two years affected Padikkal's form and fitness - in the 2022-23 season, he managed only 260 runs in seven Ranji innings at an average of 37.14. After regaining full fitness, Padikkal has now hit the high notes with the bat. He was Karnataka's top run-getter in the 50-overs Vijay Hazare Trophy with 465 runs in five innings at an average of 155 and strike rate of 120.46. He has followed it up with four hundreds in six first-class games this season. Padikkal hopes that his stellar run will culminate in a Ranji title for Karnataka.

"To be honest, in the last couple of years I wasn't doing too well," Padikkal said. "My performances were naturally dipping because of that. But I was always confident enough that I'd be back scoring runs at some point. Now that I'm back in terms of my fitness and health completely, I'm really happy I'm back scoring runs as well.

"We all understand that when you're not scoring runs, it's not a great place to be. Really happy that I'm getting runs and helping the team win. For Karnataka, winning the Ranji Trophy is the ultimate prize. How much ever you perform individually, if you're not winning the Ranji Trophy, it doesn't matter."

If Padikkal could convert his century into a double on Saturday, on a Chepauk pitch that is already showing signs of variable bounce, he could take Karnataka towards the top of Group C in the Elite table and a step closer to that title.