For Padikkal, captaincy 'just helps my batting even further'
Devdutt Padikkal in action in the Duleep Trophy final • Vedhan M
Padikkal had taken over from Mayank Agarwal as Karnataka's Ranji Trophy captain in 2025-26 ahead of their last league-stage fixture against Punjab. Padikkal didn't let the extra responsibility affect his batting, scoring a fourth-innings 120* off 85 balls as an opener to help Karnataka chase down 250 in just 28 overs in Mohali. He then scored a career-best 232 from No. 3 against Uttarakhand in the semi-final in Lucknow, putting in another Player-of-the-Match performance as captain.
"Definitely, it's a great opportunity to be the captain of India A side," Padikkal said after the Duleep Trophy final at Chepauk on Thursday. "I'm looking forward to it. I think leadership is something that I really enjoy doing, especially starting off with Karnataka last year. It was a great learning curve for me, so I'm really looking forward to carrying that experience to India A set-up as well.
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"Captaincy is just an added responsibility to go out there and make sure that I'm helping the side. I've always played cricket that way. I've always wanted to make sure that the team wins. As a captain, that's your sole focus. You want to make the team win. That just helps my batting even further."
B Sai Sudharsan, whom Padikkal had replaced for the two-match Test series in Sri Lanka, is fit again for the two-match series against Australia A and has been appointed Padikkal's deputy.
"I think there's always been tough competition for spots in Indian cricket," Padikkal said. "I think it's never really come down and it's always going to be the same. It's important that we don't focus too much on that and just continue to enjoy my batting. As long as I'm scoring runs, I'm happy."
Padikkal, and also Sai Sudharsan, play most lengths, including the fuller ones, from spinners off the back foot and have made it work. Having grown up playing that way, Padikkal doesn't see it as a risk.
"It takes a lot of hard work to go through the domestic grind. There's a lot of high-quality cricket going on in the domestic circuit. I think it's not always noticed, but you can see that. Especially when you look at Duleep Trophy, the amount of quality that is there and the talent that is there"
Devdutt Padikkal
Even recently in the Duleep final, Padikkal preferred to stay back to fullish deliveries from East Zone offspinner Md Kounain Quraishi and created scoring opportunities, staying true to his strengths.
"I think that [playing off the back foot] comes naturally [to me]. I think that's a technical thing that some batsmen prefer to play more on the back foot," Padikkal said. "For me personally, I don't see it as a risk and it's part of my game. It's something that I've done my whole career. It's not something different for me. For someone who is not used to playing at the back foot much, that might seem as a risk. But at the end of the day, those are things that you have to continue to adapt.
"There will be things in your game that you have to make sure that you are not letting them [opposition] expose it. I think you have to keep working on it, keep trying and make sure that those small shortcomings that you may have... you have to make sure how you can adapt with it and manage that as well."
Padikkal's return to the India Test XI and seizing that opportunity is a success story for Indian domestic cricket. After scoring hundreds in Galle and Colombo, Padikkal threatened to bring up his third successive century in as many first-class games until seamer Mukesh Kumar stopped him on 62, having him hole out to deep midwicket in the Duleep final.
Padikkal also put in long shifts in the slip cordon as East Zone racked up more than 1000 runs across two innings and went onto secure the title on the basis of first-innings lead.
"It takes a lot of hard work to go through the domestic grind," Padikkal said. "There's a lot of high-quality cricket going on in the domestic circuit. I think it's not always noticed, but you can see that. Especially when you look at Duleep Trophy, the amount of quality that is there and the talent that is there. I think there is a lot of hard work that goes in day in day out to make sure that you are constantly performing after every game.
"You play almost 11 games a year in the Ranji Trophy to get to the finals. So, doing that is not very easy and it takes a lot of effort and a lot of commitment to what you're doing. At the end of the day, when that gets noticed and you get picked for the [national] side, it's a really gratifying experience."
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