The innings in Colombo was different. He looked scratchy and uncertain early on Sunday and also got two reprieves, on 0 and 1.

Sri Lanka’s seamers repeatedly tested him with short balls, forcing him to duck, sway and occasionally fend awkwardly. Lahiru Kumara came close to finding his edge, while Asitha Fernando maintained the pressure by angling the ball across him.

Making it a habit. 💯

Devdutt Padikkal, making centuries look effortless. 😍

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The spinners also posed a challenge. Keshara Nuwantha found turn and bounce, while Jayasuriya varied his pace and trajectory. Padikkal’s response was to look to survive against the duo. He played late and with soft hands, willing to defend rather than force the issue.

That patience eventually paid off. Once he settled, Padikkal began finding his range. He used the depth of the crease against the spinners, rocking back to cut shorter deliveries and getting forward when they overpitched. He lofted the ball over the offside and drove the full and wide deliveries. When the pacers pitched it short, he brought out the pull shot.

His half-century, reached with a crisp drive off Jayasuriya, was therefore markedly different from the one in Galle. There, his knock was defined by fluency. In Colombo, what stood out was his ability to adapt, survive an uncomfortable start and gradually turn a difficult passage into another big score.

The left-hander grew increasingly assured after tea. He cut and drove with authority, handled Jayasuriya particularly well and brought up a second Test hundred with a single after consecutive boundaries off the left-arm spinner in the 70th over. On 117, though, he made his only error against spin, going back to Nuwantha when he should have been forward, and lost his off- stump.

Captain comes to party

Shubman Gill gave Padikkal good company with a patient half-century after his twin failures at Galle, where Jayasuriya had dismissed him in both innings. In Colombo, he brought a calmer approach.

The skipper trusted his defence, got forward to fuller deliveries and was happy to shoulder arms when the Sri Lankan bowlers drifted to defensive lines by bowling outside the leg-stump.

His first boundary off the left-arm spinner summed up his approach. Gill went deep inside the crease to a short ball and whipped it through midwicket. Later, when Jayasuriya overpitched, he skipped down and drove cleanly over mid-off. In between came long passages of patient defence, soft hands and careful strike rotation as he refused to offer the spinner the chances he had in Galle.

Apart from Jayasuriya, against whom he scored 23 of his 50 runs, Gill also grew in confidence against Nuwantha, picking up 16 runs off the right-armer. He was equally assured against the seamers. He left well outside off, drove Asitha Fernando elegantly through the covers and flicked anything on his pads, gradually settling into an innings as the overs trickled down. His fifty came off 99 balls, but unlike Galle, it ended not with a lapse against spin but with a loose slash outside off against Fernando, edging behind after a well-made 50 and ending a 120-run stand with Padikkal.

Silky strokeplay from Shubman Gill. 🫡

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After Rishabh Pant retired hurt on 3 after getting hit on his left forearm by Kumara, India needed stability, as Ravindra Jadeja joined Padikkal in the middle. The veteran all-rounder gave good support to Padikkal, combining solid defence with drives and sweeps, but also needed treatment from the physio during his innings. However, just when it looked like he would see through the day, he was bowled by Fernando shouldering arms.

Before Padikkal and Gill steadied India’s innings, Yashasvi Jaiswal’s dismissal prompted some drama in the opening session. The left-hander scored a brisk 45 off 53 balls, including nine boundaries, before Fernando bowled him after the opener had struck three fours in the 17th over.

As Jaiswal walked back, he returned to confront Fernando, with the pair exchanging words before the batsman headbutted the bowler. Other players intervened quickly, separating them and preventing the incident from escalating further.