As long as I’m scoring runs, I’m happy: Padikkal

Devdutt Padikkal is living up to the proverb ‘make hay while the sun shines.’ In the recent Test tour of Sri Lanka, the Karnataka batter replaced an injured Sai Sudharsan in the line-up and made it count.

He scored two centuries in the two matches and was adjudged Player-of-the-Series, for his 328 runs from three innings.

“I think there’s always been tough competition for spots in Indian cricket. It never comes down, and it’s going to be the same. We mustn’t focus too much on that and [have to] just keep enjoying batting. As long as I’m scoring runs, I’m happy,” said Padikkal, who returned to the Test squad after nearly two years.

The 26-year-old scored 543 runs from six matches in the Ranji Trophy last season and felt that domestic cricket toughens a cricketer.

“It takes a lot of hard work to go through the grind day in and day out to make sure that you are constantly performing. There’s a lot of high-quality cricket going on in the domestic circuit. I don’t think it’s always noticed, but you can see it.”

“You play almost 11 games (sic) a year in the Ranji Trophy to get to the final. That’s not easy, and it takes a lot of effort and commitment. At the end of the day, when that gets noticed, and you get picked for the side, it’s a really gratifying experience,” he said.

In the Duleep Trophy final that concluded here on Thursday, Padikkal scored 62 for South Zone against East Zone and stressed the importance of having game time.

“The more matches you play, the better. 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. You can practice as much as you want, but the experience you get playing a match is very, very different.”

The left-hander, who led Karnataka from mid-season last year, has now been appointed skipper of the India-A squad that will take on Australia-A later this month and is looking forward to the challenge.

“I think leadership is something that I really enjoy, especially starting with Karnataka last year. It was a great learning curve for me, so I’m really looking forward to carrying that experience to the India-A set-up as well,” added Padikkal.