Padikkal delivered a stellar knock of 167 runs in India's first innings at Galle International Stadium.
Speaking in a video shared by the BCCI on social media, Rahul attributed Padikkal’s success in Galle to years of quiet work behind the scenes.
“In the last couple of years he's been waiting for his opportunity and quietly toiling in the nets and trying to get better at some aspects of his batting,” Rahul said.
He went on to praise Padikkal's preparation before this series. “He's someone who's come here before, scored some runs in India A as well. So just getting used to the condition, he scored 100 in the warm-up game as well. He's been amongst runs, he's someone who loves batting and scoring big runs,” Rahul added.
Rahul noted after Padikkal’s maiden Test ton that getting a first three-figure score early helps a batter clear a psychological hurdle, enjoy the game more, and elevate their performance.
“I'm really happy that he could get the first hundred and that's really special for everybody and very important to get that early in your career so you can get that out of the way and then start enjoying your cricket and start enjoying your batting and take your batting to the next level,” Rahul stated.
“I think he's at a stage where he understands his batting really well and he's scoring lots of runs so I think he'll make that move into scoring bigger knocks for India and being more consistent,” he remarked.
Rahul supported Padikkal’s innings with 82 runs of his own, while Dhruv Jurel produced a half-century (51) as India racked up a massive 462/10 in their first innings.
For Sri Lanka, Prabath Jayasuriya returned with four wickets while debutant Keshara Nuwantha picked up three scalps.