India, Aug. 15 -- Devdutt Padikkal has repaid the faith of all those who believed in him with his first Test century on the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka on Saturday. The pitch at Galle was flat, and the left-handed batsman made the most of the friendly conditions to reach the milestone.

In June and July, the Karnataka batsman played a lot of cricket in Sri Lanka, representing India A. In the three innings he got at that time, he came up with scores of 12, 67 and 94. Both those matches happened to take place at Galle. Then last week, he scored 142 not out against Sri Lanka Cricket XI in the three-day warm-up.

So, one can see there were signs he will come good today. The 26-year-old nicely tapped down Keshara Nuwantha t...