Karnataka opening batsman Devdutt Padikkal has been in brilliant form in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy and has scored 4 consecutive centuries, helping his side make the semi-finals of the tournament.
Padikkal, who scored 101 against Kerala in the quarter-finals, also scored tons against Railways (145*), Kerala (126*) and Odisha (152). Before that he scored 97 against Bihar and 52 against Uttar Pradesh.
India, who are scheduled to play 3 ODIs against England before IPL 2021 begins, is yet to announce their squad for the series.
Alongside captain Ravikumar Samarth (192), Padikkal made the Kerala fielders and bowlers toil as the opening pair added 249 runs in 42.4 overs.
Padikkal scored 101 runs off 119 balls - an innings that was studded with ten boundaries and two sixes. At the end of 50 overs, Karnataka put 338 runs on board. For Kerala, Jalaj Saxena was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 0/34 in his 10 overs, while everyone else went for more than six and a half runs an over. Sreesanth conceded 73 in his 10 overs.
Currently, Padikkal leads the charts for the highest run-getters in the tournament with 673 runs to his name from 6 innings.
Padikkal, who has played a total of 19 List A games, has 6 centuries and 7 fifties to his name at an average of 88.20 with a total runs tally of 1323.
Padikkal has become only the third batsman after Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara and South Africa's Alviro Peterson to score four consecutive tons in List A cricket. While Sangakkara had scored four centuries on the trot during the 2015 World Cup, Peterson had achieved the feat during Momentum One Day Cup 2015/16.
Earlier, Padikkal had a memorable IPL debut in 2020 where he scored 473 runs in 14 matches. He scored five fifties in his debut season for RCB.
He became the first to score three half centuries in his first four IPL matches after scoring 56 off 42 against SunRisers Hyderabad, 54 off 40 against eventual champions Mumbai Indians and 63 off 45 against Rajasthan Royals.
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