India, Aug. 18 -- Devdutt Padikkal made a strong case for himself to be the permanent No.3 for India in Tests with a century in the first innings of the Galle Test against Sri Lanka. The left-handed batter aggregated more than 200 runs after returning with scores of 167 and 44 in the opening Test of the two-match series. The elegant left-hander from Karnataka had also hit a ton in the warm-up fixture against SLC XI and carried on with his form in the crucial Test.

However, Padikkal might not have started in the playing XI had Sai Sudharsan been fit for the series. The Tamil Nadu batter was ruled out before the first Test, and hence the team management had no option but to stick with Padikkal. Earlier, when both were available for the lon...