Devdutt Padikkal’s incredible run of form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2025/26 continued with another fine showing. His non-selection for the Indian ODI team didn’t make a difference to his run-scoring exploits, as he plundered 91 runs against Gujarat in Karnataka’s latest match.
Padikkal fell narrowly short of a fifth century in the six Vijay Hazare Trophy matches thus far, but took his aggregate for this season up to 605 runs in six matches thus far. This marks the third time in his career that Padikkal has crossed the 600-run mark in the VHT, becoming the first player to achieve that feat in tournament history. Ruturaj Gaikwad is the only other player to have achieved the feat twice.
Padikkal had first breached the 600 mark in his sophomore season in 2019/20 at the age of 20, but his landmark season would come the following year. The Karnataka batter plundered 737 runs in just eight innings in 2020/21, including four consecutive centuries.
132 runs short of that mark and with one group stage match and at least one knockout match to follow, red-hot Padikkal will fancy his chances of overtaking that tally – a mark which stands in third place for most runs in a single VHT season, behind Narayan Jagadeesan and Prithvi Shaw’s monster 820+ run performances this decade.
Padikkal's average remains incredibly impressive
{{/usCountry}}132 runs short of that mark and with one group stage match and at least one knockout match to follow, red-hot Padikkal will fancy his chances of overtaking that tally – a mark which stands in third place for most runs in a single VHT season, behind Narayan Jagadeesan and Prithvi Shaw’s monster 820+ run performances this decade.
Padikkal's average remains incredibly impressive
{{/usCountry}}Padikkal’s four centuries in this tournament have already pushed him into third place in terms of players with the most List A tonnes in Indian domestic cricket: he now sits on 13 tons, but couldn’t match Ruturaj Gaikwad on 14 after Manav Suthar dismissed him at the Gujarat College Ground in Ahmedabad. Maharashtra’s Ankeet Bawane sits just ahead on 15.
Padikkal’s List A average now sits at 83.62 in 38 innings, which is heads-and-shoulders the highest bar for any player with at least 2000 runs in this format.
Karnataka’s sixth win in six matches continued their perfect record thus far in this tournament, carried by Padikkal’s form but with all-round performances across the board. Mayank Agarwal scored a ton opening the batting with Padikkal, while Prasidh Krishna’s five-fer ensured that Karnataka easily defended 324.
They have already qualified through to the knockout stage. They are joined by Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, and Punjab thus far, with one last round of group stage fixtures to follow.