# Srikkanth warns as Padikkal scores second straight Test ton 2026-08-24T07:19:08+00:00 | Sports | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Devdutt Padikkal struck his second consecutive Test hundred in Colombo, putting pressure on India's selection committee. The left-hander scored 117 in the second Test against Sri Lanka after making a century in the first match. Former selector Krishnamachari Srikkanth said the knocks make it hard for the team management to drop him. Padikkal, batting at No. 3, has now scored 234 runs in two innings in this series. India won the first Test and started strongly in the second. The 24-year-old's form adds to a growing list of batters competing for spots in the middle order. The next Test squad announcement will show if the team rotates its established top order. ## Indian Opinion Analysis With Shubman Gill and the established top three settled, Padikkal's back-to-back hundreds create a genuine selection squeeze. The team management has two Tests against Sri Lanka to decide the batting order before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where Australia's pace attack will test India's middle order. Padikkal, primarily a left-handed option at No. 3, directly competes with Gill for that slot. The next decision point is the squad announcement for the Australia series, likely in October. ## Coverage - sports.ndtv.com Led with Srikkanth's warning quote and Padikkal's personal milestone, framing the story as selection drama rather than match report This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Devdutt Padikkal, India cricket team, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Sri Lanka cricket team Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/srikkanth-warns-as-padikkal-scores-second-straight-test-ton/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/srikkanth-warns-as-padikkal-scores-second-straight-test-ton/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/