CHENNAI: The more Devdutt Padikkal plays, the more he seems to want. Over the past year, the 26-year-old has taken on the domestic grind, Karnataka captaincy, and the demands of rediscovering his best red-ball game. Now comes another challenge: leading India A against Australia.
As captain, the left-handed batter has already shown he is unfazed by responsibility. He scored 543 runs in last year’s Ranji Trophy, including a stellar 232 against Uttarakhand in the semi-final.
“I think leadership is something that I really enjoy doing, especially starting with Karnataka last year,” Padikkal told select media after the Duleep Trophy 2026 final.
“I'm really looking forward to carrying that experience to the India A set-up as well. It's 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,” he added.
Padikkal is in the purple patch of his cricketing career, having amassed 1,577 runs across formats in last season’s domestic cricket. En route to his 725-run season in the 2025-26 Vijay Hazare Trophy, Padikkal became the first player in the competition’s history to amass over 600 runs in three different seasons.
But the numbers only tell part of Padikkal’s recent evolution. The bigger change has been his ability to move between formats and conditions while making adjustments to his own game. After scoring 142 against Sri Lanka Cricket XI, Padikkal grabbed his opportunity when he was roped into the Indian setup. He marked his Test return with 167 before scoring 117 in Colombo to finish the series with 328 runs.
“It’s a constant learning curve. There are a lot of things that I've learnt throughout the season – more technical than mental. I think there were a few changes that I needed to make to evolve as a batter in the last season or so.”
“I'm continuing to learn. We're playing in different conditions. Obviously Sri Lanka and Chennai were quite similar. But I think moving forward, going to New Zealand as well, it'll be interesting to see how I can adapt to different conditions.”
The biggest change, though, has been at the start of his red-ball innings. Padikkal has consciously worked on curbing the urge to play too many shots early, a tweak that has allowed him to spend more time at the crease. Much of that work, though, was done during the rigours of domestic cricket.
“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,” Padikkal said.
“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 side, it's a really gratifying experience.”
For Padikkal, there is little appeal in slowing down. His philosophy is simple: the more he plays, the more he learns. It wasn’t a surprise that Padikkal took the first flight back to Chennai to play the Duleep Trophy final, where he scored 62.
“Whenever you get an opportunity to play a match, I think you should take that. It always helps you. It gives you first-hand experience as to how you want to model your game and how you want to make changes. Whenever I get that opportunity to play a match, I make sure that I do,” he said.
In Sri Lanka and Chennai, another aspect of Padikkal’s game stood out — his willingness to play spin off the back foot. While it might seem a risky option to others, it is the 26-year-old’s natural game style.
“For me personally, I don't see it as a risk. It's part of my game. It's something that I've done my whole career. I think you have to keep working on it, keep trying and make sure that, with those small shortcomings that you may have, you have to make sure how you can adapt to it and manage that as well.”
With competition for places only intensifying, Padikkal knows there is little room for complacency. His answer, though, is simple.
“As long as I'm scoring runs, I'm happy.”