India and Sri Lanka lock horns with significant World Test Championship points on stake
ICC World Test Championship
India will be touring Sri Lanka to play a Test series for the first time since 2017. The two-match encounter starting on Saturday will be hosted at the Galle International Stadium and the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo. India last played a World Test Championship game in November 2025 although they did face Afghanistan for a one-off Test in June at home which they won by an innings and 300 runs. They have not lost a Test series to Sri Lanka since 2008 and are unbeaten in the past 10 Test matches between these two teams winning 8 of them. Shubman Gill will be leading the side with the visitors missing a number of players due to fitness issues.
The hosts played Test cricket following a break of 1 year in West Indies last month losing the Sobers-Tissera trophy 1-0. The selectors announced their squad almost three days before the beginning of the opening match with a few personnel out because to injuries. Captain Dhananjaya de Silva will be hoping to put the disappointment of their previous series loss behind them with the chances of a World Test Championship final spot hanging by a thread for both countries. India faced Sri Lanka Cricket XI in a three day Warm-up game at the NCC Ground, Colombo winning by 6 wickets.
Both teams suffer from injury setbacks
India named a 16-men squad for this tour with Washington Sundar only being named for the second Test as he was nursing a hamstring injury picked in England. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep and Harshit Rana were already on the sidelines and since then Jasprit Bumrah and Sai Sudharsan have joined them. Bumrah suffered a recurrence of his knee injury in the ODI series with England whereas Sudharsan has a toe stress fracture ruling him out of this series. Washington has now been ruled out of whole tour failing to recover in time for the final game starting on August 23.
The hosts themselves are missing the likes of their mainstays Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis from the opening Test. Nissanka had undergone a surgery on his wrist last month and he was replaced by Lahiru Udara in the second Test who scored 188 as Sri Lankan batters put on an improved show in a fighting draw. Udara should continue with Nishan Madhushka at the top of the order who boosted his confidence with a couple of fifties in the Warm-up fixture. Kusal Mendis injured his hamstring a few weeks ago which will take some more time to heal and hence he has been replaced by the 33-year old Niroshan Dickwella whose previous Test came three years ago.
Devdutt Padikkal put his hand up with a timely 142 versus SLC XI making him a clear favorite for the No.3 spot in place of Sudharsan. The top 6 should remain unchanged from the Afghanistan Test otherwise leaving Sarfaraz Khan on the bench after he was named as Sudharsan's replacement in the squad. The visitors were expected to select three spinners in tandem with both Bumrah and Siraj but since Bumrah is not present, Prasidh Krishna continues in the XI. Gurnoor Brar and the newest entrant to their fast bowling club, Auqib Nabi Dar might have to wait for their chance although both of them managed to impress on the recent India A tour to face Sri Lanka A in two four-day fixtures prior to this series.
Jadeja's return and Sundar's injury enhances the Saransh-Suthar conundrum
Ravindra Jadeja is finally back in the Indian squad after being rested for the Afghanistan Test. Jadeja who retired from the T20I format in 2024, last took the field for them eight months ago in a 50-over game against New Zealand. Jadeja has been a part of all the WTC matches India has participated in this cycle becoming one of the most trusted batters in this line-up, however his bowling has recently lost the threat Jadeja carried in the early years of his red-ball career. In his absence, Manav Suthar was handed a debut and he responded with a Player of the Match performance taking 6-33 in the first innings.
With Washington Sundar missing out, the selectors have called up the uncapped off-spinning all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh, Saransh Jain. The 33-year old comes in with 188 wickets in 54 matches in addition to over 2200 runs at a batting average of 31.75 in First-Class cricket. Washington's ability to bat anywhere from No.3 to No.8 along with his improving bowling skills made him an unquestionable part of the Indian Test set-up. Saransh Jain rose to fame with a blockbuster Ranji season 2025 thanks to his all-round exploits which parachuted him into the A team recently. Sundar's absence meant selectors were forced to call-up Saransh who provides the exact same skill as Sundar with both bat and ball. Tanush Kotian is probably the only other right-arm finger-spin option in the domestic circuit after both these players.
Kuldeep Yadav is a certainty as the frontline spinner along with Jadeja meaning the toss-up is expected to be between Saransh Jain and Manav Suthar. Ravindra Jadeja has transformed himself into India's second best batter in Test cricket behind Shubman Gill. Since his maiden century in 2018, Jadeja has averaged 43.07 with the bat as compared to a career average of 38.27 with 6 centuries. The five-Test series in England last year presented the actual ability of Jadeja as a batter as he went on to score 516 runs with five fifties and a century in 10 innings batting at the No.6 position. Post the retirement of Ravichandran Ashwin from Test cricket, Jadeja's incisiveness with the ball has reduced drastically though. Since the start of the Border-Gavaskar trophy in 2024, Jadeja has averaged 40.03 with the ball striking at 74, 15 more than his career numbers on both metrics. Their wretched run in this format has coincided with Jadeja's loss of bowling form. He would love to re-discover his mojo with the ball against a side Jadeja loves to bully.
Manav Suthar did everything he was asked of in his debut match. He took 8 wickets in a Player of the Match performance but also contributed in the other two departments efficiently. Suthar has since been part of the County Championship in England playing two games for Warwickshire and taking 11 wickets including a fifer. He has also added scores over 25 in each of the three batting innings. The Sri Lankan squad has an abundance of right-handed batters which might turn the tables in Suthar's favor when it comes to the final spot in the XI. Suthar might consider himself unlucky if the coach and captain select Saransh Jain ahead of him at Galle given Suthar has not put a foot wrong in the past two months. Jain's unique skillset in the current Indian squad is his only advantage but a left-arm trio of Kuldeep-Jadeja-Suthar partnered with two pace bowlers seems to be the correct combination for the spin-friendly Galle surface.
Sri Lanka embrace home conditions post a tough Caribbean trip
The Sri Lankan team has played only 4 tests in the past 14 months making it a difficult period of inactivity for their red-ball specialists at the highest stage. Many cricketers have raised this point in the past yet their board remains hesitant to spend more resources on the longest format due it's nature of not being a cash-grab unlike the white-ball formats. These long gaps in the cricketing schedule have contributed to rustiness which was a clear sign in the first Test of the West Indies series last month. Except for the senior pros Dinesh Chandimal and skipper de Silva, all their batters gifted their wickets to the opponents. The bowlers also looked short of match practice with Lahiru Kumara getting injured after bowling only one over as the Lankan Lions succumbed to an innings defeat. A better display in the next game helped them secure a draw eventually losing the series 1-0.
The hosts are back in the comfort of the home but an even bigger challenge awaits them versus a side they have not defeated red-ball cricket since 2015. Captain Dhanajaya de Silva has a capable squad at his disposal for the opening game Lahiru Udara's 188 in the previous game was the biggest turning point and he will again take the field with Nishan Madhushka in the opening role. Chandimal and de Silva's experience will be crucial for the middle order which also contains their star batter Kamindu Mendis and the returning Niroshan Dickwella. Sonal Dinusha is primed to take the lone all-rounder's spot.
The pace attack has a new name in Dilshan Madushanka who debuted three years ago versus Pakistan. They have left out Kasun Rajitha and the newbie Isitha Wijesundara. 25-year old Keshara Nuwantha with only 15 First-Class caps to his name makes a sudden entrance for the national side but the duo of Prabhat Jayasuriya and Ramesh Mendis should get priority along with Sonal Dinusha. Asitha Fernando is a certainty with a choice between Kumara and Vishwa Fernando to be Asitha's new ball partner. De Silva will be hoping to utilize the home conditions and make a stride towards the WTC final as the battle heats up for the top-two race.
India continue to slide under coach Gambhir's tenure
Gautam Gambhir took over from Rahul Dravid as the head coach of the Indian cricket team following the T20 World Cup triumph two years ago in West Indies as they won an ICC trophy after 13 long years. Since then, the visitors have swept away both the white-ball ICC tournaments yet the team continues to struggle across formats. India secured the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 organized in Pakistan and UAE unbeaten under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. In the T20Is, they went on an unbeaten run not losing a single series as Surya Kumar Yadav led them to a second consecutive T20 World Cup trophy at home earlier this year. However, things have not been same in the longest format.
India were defeated in a Test series at home for the first time since 2012 as New Zealand whitewashed them 3-0 in Gambhir's maiden Test series in-charge. This was followed by India surrendering Border-Gavaskar Trophy after 10 years losing the series 1-3 in Australia in a one-sided affair. They also failed to make the World Test Championship final following a runner-up finish in the first two cycles. Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma announced their sudden retirements from the longest format leaving the side short of 296 caps. Shubman Gill led them in transition admirably forcing a 2-2 draw on their visit to England last year in one of the most memorable bilateral series. However, another whitewash at the hands of South Africa in home conditions has left a sour taste in the mouth of Indian cricket team fans.
India has a Win/Loss record of 8-10 in 20 games under Gautam Gambhir in Test cricket
The batters have consistently struggled to face quality spin bowling leading to sudden collapses which has become a trend recently. Absence of a technically sound batter against slow bowling has exposed the whole line-up with batters often being confused on choosing to either attack or play the defensive game. A balanced approach has often being missing and extreme nature of the pitches used have also not helped. In a bid to make batting rough for the visiting sides, India have shot themselves in the foot. Things have not been all rosy in the 50-over format too.
Post the Champions Trophy victory, India has played 5 three-match ODI series losing three of them. New Zealand followed their maiden Test series triumph in India from 2024 with a maiden ODI series win in the country early this year. They were also beaten 1-2 on their visits to Australia and England making it a tough initiation for Shubman Gill as the skipper in both formats although he continues to rack up heaps of runs with the bat. The T20I set-up has also began to show some cracks with a loss in all the 6 completed T20Is post the T20 World Cup trophy this year to Ireland and England as the extra bounce became a kryptonite for their batters.
A number of favored selections have continued to under-perform and are still backed continuously across formats while the deserved names are being sidelined unfairly. Both T Dilip, the fielding coach and Ryan Ten Doeschate the assistant coach have departed from the original coaching staff which was employed at the start of Gambhir's tenure. Abhishek Nayar was made a scapegoat in 2025 for India's struggled in red-ball cricket and was fired from the assistant coach position. Gautam Gambhir's contract as the head coach runs until the end of 2027 ODI World Cup and it seems like he might see out the remaining time but given the recent results, his role needs to be put under scanner. The visitors cannot afford anymore slips in the WTC or they will lose out on a second consecutive final next year. The same holds true for India's white-ball results with the next two World Cups supposed to be hosted in foreign conditions.
Galle welcomes a litmus test of spin
Galle and Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo will host the two Tests beginning this Saturday with Galle getting the first preference. The last seventeen Tests in Sri Lanka have been played on these two grounds only with Galle getting a chance 14 times. This will also be a historic occasion for Galle as it becomes the 17th venue to organize 50 Tests in cricketing history and the only one from the island nation. India holds a 2-3 Win/Loss record at this ground being victorious on their former tour here in 2017 by 304 runs.
Galle has traditionally been a bat first ground. The captains winning the toss have chosen to bat 44 times in 49 attempts. Batting gets tougher as the game progresses with the average falling from 38.59 in the first innings to 23.03 in the fourth. The surface has always favored spinners who average 31.01 taking 68% of the total wickets versus 36.77 for pace. Nine out of the top ten wicket-takers here have been spinners. Among active cricketers, Prabhat Jayasuriya leads the chart with 81 wickets in 11 games chasing the likes of Mutthiah Muralidaran and Rangana Herath at the top. In fact, 64.8% wickets of Jayasuriya's career have come at Galle. Dinesh Chandimal is 21 away from 2000 runs standing at fourth in the list of the highest run-getters while Kamindu Mendis averages 62.87 from 6 matches on this ground.
KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja are the only two names in the squad who have played a match each on this venue. The last Test held at Galle between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka was a high scoring draw with Najmul Hossain Shanto scoring twin hundreds. The pitch is expected to behave traditionally, helping the batters on the first two days and then bringing spinners into action as the pitch breaks slowly. Rain in expected on the opening three days which might disrupt play in patches but the ground has an excellent drainage. Players will find it difficult with the Humidity expected to be remain over 75% throughout the five-day duration. India's spin weakness is Sri Lanka's biggest weapon thus forming an intricate battle between the two neighboring nations.
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