India begin a two-Test tour of Sri Lanka on 15 August 2026, and it arrives with more riding on it than a short away series usually carries. India sit fifth in the World Test Championship table on 48.15%, Sri Lanka sit sixth on 41.67%, and both sides need points from a cycle that closes in January 2027.
This is a full preview: the confirmed schedule, the squad as it actually stands after two replacements, where both teams sit in the WTC, what Galle and the SSC tend to produce, and how to follow it all from India. No odds, tips or predictions — that is a line we hold on every tournament page on this site.
The result: India won the series 1-0
Updated 28 August 2026, the day after the series ended.
| Test | Venue & dates | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Test | Galle, 15–19 August | India won by 165 runs |
| 2nd Test | Colombo (SSC), 23–27 August | Match drawn — Sri Lanka 9 down at the close |
| Series | India 1–0 |
At Galle, Devdutt Padikkal made 167 and left-arm spinner Manav Suthar took ten wickets in the match as India closed out a 165-run win in Shubman Gill’s first series as Test captain.
Colombo produced the drama. India declared on 503 for 9 and enforced the follow-on after bowling Sri Lanka out for 290 — and then could not land the final blow. Sonal Dinusha, player of the match, made 103 in the follow-on and an unbeaten 133 as Sri Lanka closed on 429 for 9, one wicket from defeat. A 1–0 away series win still banks the points, but the finish belonged to Sri Lanka.
In the World Test Championship 2025-27 table, India remain fifth after the drawn Test — the sections below on how the points work are unchanged.
The schedule: exact dates, venues and times
| Test | Dates | Venue | Start (IST) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Test | 15–19 August 2026 | Galle International Cricket Stadium, Galle | 10:00 AM |
| 2nd Test | 23–27 August 2026 | Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC), Colombo | 10:00 AM |
India also played a four-day practice match in Colombo beginning 7 August, which is an unusually generous amount of preparation by modern touring standards and reflects how different Sri Lankan conditions are from anywhere India had been playing recently.
Both Tests start at 10:00 AM IST. Sri Lanka is only 30 minutes ahead of India, so there is effectively no adjustment for Indian viewers — this is the most convenient overseas tour in the calendar, and a considerably easier watch than a trip to Australia or England.
India’s squad
The BCCI named a 15-member squad on 28 July 2026, led by Shubman Gill with KL Rahul as vice-captain. Two players have since been replaced, so the list below reflects where things actually stand rather than the original announcement.
| Category | Players |
|---|---|
| Captain | Shubman Gill |
| Vice-captain | KL Rahul |
| Batters | Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan |
| Wicketkeepers | Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel |
| All-rounder | Ravindra Jadeja |
| Spinners | Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Saransh Jain |
| Pace | Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Auqib Nabi |
Three names are worth pausing on. Saransh Jain received a maiden Test call-up on the back of a strong domestic season. Auqib Nabi is also uncapped at this level. And Ravindra Jadeja returns after injury, which matters more in Sri Lanka than it would almost anywhere else.
What changed between selection and the first Test
A fortnight is a long time in squad news, and this one moved twice.
- Jasprit Bumrah was originally named subject to fitness clearance from the BCCI Centre of Excellence, and was subsequently replaced by Auqib Nabi on 3 August.
- Sai Sudharsan was also named subject to clearance and was later ruled out, with Sarfaraz Khan named as his replacement.
- Washington Sundar was not available for selection for the first Test.
- Ajinkya Rahane announced the end of his international career on 30 July, and the BCCI paid tribute the same day.
- The squad therefore arrives with two uncapped players and without its first-choice quick.
Losing Bumrah is the significant one in isolation, but it matters less on these surfaces than it would in England or Australia. A two-Test tour of Sri Lanka in August is a spin assignment, and the squad’s shape — Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar and Saransh Jain — reflects that clearly.
Where both teams sit in the World Test Championship
This is the context that gives a two-Test series its weight. The 2025–27 cycle runs to January 2027, and standings are ranked by percentage of available points won rather than raw points, because teams play very different numbers of matches.
| Pos | Team | M | W | L | D | Pts | PCT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 8 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 84 | 87.50 |
| 2 | South Africa | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 36 | 75.00 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 52 | 72.22 |
| 4 | Bangladesh | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 28 | 58.33 |
| 5 | India | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 52 | 48.15 |
| 6 | Sri Lanka | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 20 | 41.67 |
Australia’s 87.50% from eight matches is a commanding position. The gap between them and fifth place is the story of India’s cycle so far, and it is worth understanding how India got there rather than just noting the number.
How India’s WTC cycle has gone
Nine matches, four wins, four defeats, one draw. The sequence explains the percentage better than the totals do.
- England, away, July 2025 — a five-Test series that finished level. India lost the first by 5 wickets, won the second by 336 runs, lost the third by 22 runs, drew the fourth, and won the fifth by 6 runs.
- West Indies, home, October 2025 — India won both, the first by an innings and 140 runs and the second by 7 wickets.
- South Africa, home, November 2025 — India lost both. The first by 30 runs, the second by 408 runs.
That home defeat to South Africa is what pulled the percentage down. A 22-run loss and a 6-run win inside the same England series tell you how narrow the margins were there; a 408-run defeat at home is a different category of result entirely, and it cost India far more in the table than a single match ordinarily would.
The arithmetic that follows is straightforward: with the cycle closing in January 2027, and a five-Test home series against Australia scheduled for January and February 2027, the points available to India are finite and increasingly concentrated. Our India cricket schedule guide sets out how those windows fit together.
Sri Lanka’s position
Sri Lanka have played only four Tests in this cycle — one win, one defeat, two draws, 41.67%. The small sample means their percentage can move sharply on a single result, in either direction.
Their most recent Test outing was a heavy one: a defeat to West Indies by an innings and 217 runs in June 2026. Home conditions in August are a very different proposition, and Sri Lanka at Galle have historically been a substantially stronger side than Sri Lanka away from it.
Galle: the most distinctive Test venue in the calendar
The Galle International Cricket Stadium sits beside the Indian Ocean under a 17th-century Dutch fort, and it is the ground where Sri Lanka have traditionally been hardest to beat.
- Spin is the dominant force, often from the first day rather than the third.
- The surface tends to break up quickly, which makes batting in the fourth innings genuinely difficult.
- Winning the toss carries real weight here, more than at most venues.
- The sea breeze can offer something to seam early, though it rarely lasts.
- Pitches have varied more in recent years than the ground’s reputation suggests — do not assume a raging turner as a certainty.
The last point is worth stating because Galle’s reputation runs a few years ahead of its behaviour. Curation changes, and several recent Tests there have offered more to batting on the opening two days than the ground’s history would imply.
The SSC in Colombo
The Sinhalese Sports Club is a very different assignment from Galle, and the contrast between the two grounds is much of what makes a two-Test tour here interesting.
The SSC has historically been the flatter of the two — a ground where large first-innings totals are common and where draws have been a recurring outcome. Spin still matters, but it tends to arrive later in the match rather than governing it from the start.
For a side chasing WTC points, that distinction is significant. A drawn Test is worth substantially less than a win in a percentage-based table, and the SSC has produced more draws than most subcontinental venues.
Conditions in August
August sits in an awkward part of Sri Lanka’s weather calendar, and it affects the two venues differently.
| Factor | What it means |
|---|---|
| Southwest monsoon | Its tail can affect the southwest, where Galle sits |
| Colombo in August | Generally drier than Galle, though showers are possible |
| Humidity | High at both venues; a genuine physical factor across five days |
| Rain interruptions | A realistic possibility, particularly at Galle |
| Light | Fading light can shorten the final session |
Weather is not a minor footnote in a two-Test series. With only two matches and a percentage-based points table, a washed-out day at Galle changes the shape of the whole tour in a way it would not in a five-Test series.
India’s record in Sri Lanka
India have generally travelled well here relative to their record in other overseas conditions, which is unsurprising — Sri Lankan surfaces ask questions Indian players face at home rather than the ones that trouble them in England, Australia or South Africa.
That does not make it straightforward. Galle in particular has been the site of some of Sri Lanka’s most memorable home results, and a two-Test series gives a touring side very little room to recover from a poor start. There is no third Test to correct anything in.
We are not offering a view on the outcome, and no page on this site does. But the structural point stands: a two-match series doubles the cost of one bad session, and that is true regardless of who is playing.
Shubman Gill’s captaincy
Gill leads a squad missing its first-choice fast bowler, carrying two uncapped players, and sitting fifth in a championship table with a limited number of matches left in the cycle.
The interesting selection question is balance. With Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar and Saransh Jain all in the squad, India have the option of playing three specialist spinners plus Jadeja — a combination that would be unusual almost anywhere but Galle, and entirely logical there. How aggressively India commit to spin in the first Test will say a good deal about how they read the surface.
How to follow it from India
- Start time is 10:00 AM IST on every day of both Tests.
- Sri Lanka is 30 minutes ahead of IST, so local 10:30 AM is 10:00 AM in India.
- Each day runs roughly six hours of playing time plus intervals, weather permitting.
- Lunch and tea fall in the early and mid afternoon in IST.
- Broadcast arrangements should be confirmed against the official listing rather than assumed.
- Day five finishes are common in Sri Lanka, so do not write off a match that looks set on day four.
A 10:00 AM IST start is about as convenient as overseas Test cricket gets for an Indian audience — it is a full working-day fixture rather than an overnight one, which is the opposite of a tour to the Caribbean or New Zealand.
What to watch, without predicting anything
Storylines rather than forecasts, because forecasts are not something we publish.
- How many spinners India play in the first Test, and whether that changes at the SSC.
- Whether either uncapped player debuts — Saransh Jain and Auqib Nabi are both in contention.
- Jadeja’s workload on his return from injury across two back-to-back Tests.
- How the Galle surface behaves on days one and two, which will settle the reputation-versus-reality question.
- Whether the SSC produces a result at all, given its history of draws.
- The weather, particularly at Galle in the monsoon’s tail.
Where this sits in India’s year
This tour is the last significant Test assignment before India’s home season opens, and the calendar after it is dense.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| 15–27 Aug 2026 | Sri Lanka, away — 2 Tests |
| 27 Sep – 17 Oct 2026 | West Indies at home — 3 ODIs, 5 T20Is |
| Oct–Dec 2026 | New Zealand, away — T20Is, ODIs and Tests |
| 13–27 Dec 2026 | Sri Lanka at home — 3 ODIs, 3 T20Is |
| 3–9 Jan 2027 | Zimbabwe at home — 3 ODIs |
| 21 Jan – 3 Mar 2027 | Australia at home — Border-Gavaskar Trophy, 5 Tests |
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is the one that matters for the WTC cycle. Five home Tests against Australia in January and February 2027 represent the bulk of the points still available to India, and the cycle closes shortly after. Separately, the 2027 ODI World Cup guide explains the ODI qualification picture, where the ranking cut-off falls on 30 September 2026.
The short version
India play two Tests in Sri Lanka: Galle from 15 to 19 August and the SSC in Colombo from 23 to 27 August, both starting at 10:00 AM IST. Shubman Gill captains, KL Rahul is vice-captain, and the squad has changed twice since selection — Auqib Nabi replaced Jasprit Bumrah and Sarfaraz Khan replaced Sai Sudharsan, with Washington Sundar unavailable for the first Test.
India go in fifth in the World Test Championship on 48.15%, nine matches into the cycle, with the home defeat to South Africa last November the result that hurt most. Sri Lanka are sixth on 41.67% from only four matches. Galle is the more distinctive venue and traditionally the harder place to win; the SSC has a longer history of draws, which in a percentage-based table is its own kind of problem. For more of our cricket coverage see the cricket betting ID page and our India cricket schedule guide.
How WTC points are actually awarded
The percentage figures quoted everywhere are derived from a points system that is worth understanding, because it explains why a drawn Test is so much less useful than it looks.
| Result | Points awarded | Out of |
|---|---|---|
| Win | 12 | 12 |
| Tie | 6 | 12 |
| Draw | 4 | 12 |
| Loss | 0 | 12 |
Every Test is worth 12 points. A team’s percentage is simply the points it has won divided by the points it could have won. India’s 52 points from nine Tests works out at 52 of a possible 108, which is the 48.15% in the table.
Two consequences follow. First, a draw earns a third of a win — enough to matter, nowhere near enough to sustain a campaign. In a percentage-based system, a run of draws drags a side downward almost as surely as defeats do. Second, over-rate penalties deduct points, and have decided placings in previous cycles; a side can lose ground without losing a match.
For a two-Test series this produces a stark arithmetic: 24 points are on offer, and the difference between winning both and drawing both is 24 points against 8. In a cycle where India sit fifth, that gap is the entire reason a short away series carries weight.
The problem with two-Test series
Two-match series have become the standard for tours outside the biggest rivalries, and they change the nature of the contest in ways worth naming.
- There is no room to recover. Lose the first and the best available outcome is a drawn series.
- Conditions cannot be learned across the series. By the time a touring side understands the surfaces, it is over.
- Selection gambles carry more risk, because there is no third Test in which to correct them.
- Weather has outsized influence. One washed-out Test is half the series.
- Momentum matters more, simply because there is less time for it to reverse.
None of this favours either side particularly — it applies symmetrically. But it does mean a two-Test result tells you less about the relative strength of two teams than a longer series would, which is worth remembering when the outcome is used as evidence of anything.
Once this tour finishes, attention shifts home. Our India home season 2026-27 guide carries the complete BCCI fixture list — 22 matches across 17 cities, ending with the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The next India fixture of any kind after these Tests is the Women’s T20 Asia Cup in Dubai from 28 August.
Sri Lanka also visit India later in the same season. Our December white-ball series preview covers the three ODIs and three T20Is played across six Indian cities from 13 to 27 December 2026.
Auqib Nabi’s route into this squad ran through domestic cricket: 60 wickets in the Ranji Trophy 2026-27 season, the most of any bowler, as Jammu & Kashmir won their maiden title.
This is an editorial preview from the team at Readdy Anna Cricket. It covers schedules, squads, venues and standings only — we do not publish odds, tips, predictions or win probabilities. Squads and schedules change; confirm against BCCI or the official series page before relying on them. Readdy Anna Cricket is for adults 18 and over. Online gaming laws in India changed under the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and vary by state — check the rules where you live. Free confidential support is listed on our responsible gaming page.