Sri Lanka Cricket on Thursday confirmed that Galle and Colombo will host India’s two-Test series in August. The first Test will be played at the Galle International Stadium from August 15 to 19, while the second will be held at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo from August 23 to 27.
The announcement comes after BCCI declined Sri Lanka Cricket’s proposal to add T20Is to the upcoming August tour, citing a jam-packed international calendar and the need to manage player workloads.
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) had requested the additional T20I matches—initially hoping they could serve as fundraising events. However, practical scheduling challenges prevented it. The time window before the Tests was unavailable because the Lanka Premier League (LPL) concludes on August 9, and squeezing matches in afterward would interfere with subsequent bilateral series. Consequently, both boards agreed to focus solely on the Test matches, which are part of the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle
The young Indian side led by Shubman Gill is set to face a stern challenge, especially given the difficulties Indian batters have had against quality spin. Under Gill, India began the ongoing World Test Championship cycle with a 2-2 draw in England and followed it with a 2-0 series win over the touring West Indies. However, a 2-0 home defeat to South Africa last year dented their chances of reaching the WTC final.
India are currently fifth in the standings with four wins and four defeats. They head to Sri Lanka before two more demanding assignments, a two-Test tour of New Zealand in November and a five-match Border-Gavaskar series at home against Australia early next year.
Some of India’s Test regulars, including Sai Sudharsan and Dhruv Jurel, are already in Sri Lanka, where they are playing unofficial Test matches for India A. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, suffered an innings defeat to the West Indies in the first Test of their two-match series in Antigua and will look to bounce back in the second Test, which begins on July 3.
Schedule of India’s tour of Sri Lanka
- 1st Test: Aug 15-19 in Galle
- 2nd Test: Aug 23-27 in Colombo (SSC)
