Sri Lanka have gone more than a decade since their last Test match win against India, having last beaten them in the Galle Test in 2015.
Shubman Gill-led India will be desperate to turn around their recent Test fortunes when they take on Sri Lanka in a two Test series, starting in Galle on August 15, 2026.
From being rated as one of the top teams in Test cricket, India's standards have slipped alarmingly in the last couple of years.
Their young batting line-up has fared miserably against spin -- suffering two Test series losses at home in successive years, while also enduring a 1-3 series defeat in Australia in 2024.
The series against Sri Lanka gives India a chance to resurrect their below par showing in Tests in recent years and also get themselves back in the reckoning in the race for the ICC World Test Championships 2027 Final.
Two-time finalists India, who are currently placed fifth in the WTC rankings with four wins from nine Tests, will aim for victory in the Sri Lanka series to keep their hopes alive of making it to the WTC 2027 Final.
India will take confidence from the fact that they enjoy a dominant record against Sri Lanka in Tests, having regsitered 10 wins of the 17 series played, while losing three and drawing four.
While India have won nine Test matches in Sri Lanka, the islanders haven't managed a single Test victory in India in 24 attempts.
Head to Head: India vs Sri Lanka in Tests:
| Tests Played | Won By India | Won by Sri Lanka | Drawn | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 46 | 22 | 7 | 17 |
| in Sri Lanka | 24 | 9 | 7 | 8 |
| in India | 22 | 13 | 0 | 9 |
India vs Sri Lanka: Summary of Test Series Results
| Tests Played | Won By India | Won by Sri Lanka | Drawn | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 17 | 10 | 3 | 4 |
| in Sri Lanka | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| in India | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
The two teams clashed for the first time ever in Test cricket in a one-off match in Chennai in 1982. The match finished in a thrilling draw as India chasing 175 for victory in the final session, finished on 135/7 as they were forced into a battle of survival in the closing overs.
Captain Sunil Gavaskar stroked a magnificent 155 in the first innings -- his 25th Test hundred to give India a huge first innings lead.
India's middle order collapse saw Gavaskar come out at No 9 in the second innings despite struggling with a strained neck. That is the only time Gavaskar has batted at No 9. in 214 innings in his 125 Test career.
Duleep Mendis' Unique Test Record
For Sri Lanka, batting great Duleep Mendis hit two centuries in the match. But what made the feat special was that he scored exactly 105 in both innings -- becoming the first batter in Test history to score exactly the same three figure score in both innings of a Test. Since then, Pakistan's Misbah-ul Haq became only the second batter to achieve the feat when he made 101 and 101 not out in a Test match against Australia in the Abu Dhabi Test in October-November 2014.
Sri Lanka's historic first-ever Test victory also came against India, when the Duleep Mendis-led team registered a thumping 149 run victory at the P Sara Oval in Colombo in 1985. That series also saw Sri Lanka conquer another historic milestone by winning their first-ever Test series.
But from that point onwards, India proved to be too strong for their neighbours, as they registered four successive Test series wins against Sri Lanka between 1986 to 1994.
The two-match series in Sri Lanka in 1997 turned out to be a high-scoring series but both games finished in draws. But the first game of the series at the R Premadasa stadium in Colombo in August 1997 turned out to be a historic Test match for the Sri Lanka, as they stunned the cricketing world by amassing a massive world record total of 952/6 declared -- still the highest innings total by a team in Tests.
After nearly six decades -- England's 903/7 declared against Australia in 1938, this was only the second time that a team had gone past the 900-run mark in an innings in Test cricket.
Jayasuriya's World Record 340
Sanath Jayasuriya smashed his way to a brilliant 340 to become the first Sri Lankan to score a triple century in Test cricket. He was involved in a world record 576-run second-wicket partnership with Roshan Mahanama, who played a splendid knock of 225.
Three Indian batters -- Navjot Singh Sidhu (111), Sachin Tendulkar (143) and Mohammad Azharuddin (126) -- also scored centuries in the first innings, while Aravinda de Silva made a hundred (126) as not even two innings could be completed during the course of the five days on a dream pitch for the batters in Colombo.
A few months later, Sri Lanka travelled to India for a three-match series in November-December 1997 and once again the series turned out to be a lacklustre one for the fans, with all the three games finishing in draws.
After playing two series in the space of three months, the next series between the two nations took place after a gap of four years.
Sourav Ganguly-led India, missing their batting mainstay Sachin Tendulkar because of injury, suffered a 2-1 series defeat in a closely-contested three-match series in Sri Lanka in 2001.
Sri Lanka returned to India in 2005 but suffered a 2-0 thrashing. After the rain-hit first Test in Chennai finished in a draw, India's batters dominated the next two Tests in Delhi and Ahmedabad to guide the hosts to an emphatic victory.
Both teams were good at making most of their home advantage in the 2000s. Sri Lanka outclassed a strong India unit led by Anil Kumble 2-1 in 2008 led by a sensational showing on debut from spinner Ajantha Mendis, who claimed 26 wickets in the three-match series.
India's Winning Run Since 2015
Incidentally, that turned out to be Sri Lanka's last Test series victory against India. Also, Sri Lanka have gone more than a decade since their last Test match win against India, having last beaten them in the Galle Test in 2015.
While Sri Lanka managed a creditable 1-1 draw at home in 2010, India have won the other five series from 2009 to 2022.
The last Test series between the two teams was played in 2022, when Ravindra Jadeja's brilliant all-round show -- nine wickets in the match and 175 not out -- powered India to a huge victory by an innings and 222 runs in Mohali before completing a 2-0 series sweep by trouncing the visitors by 238 runs in Bengaluru.
While India look the stronger team on paper, Sri Lanka will also point to their healthy record against them at home -- with both teams having won three series each out of eight played so far.
Despite missing several key players and their batting line-up's recent struggles against spin, there is no doubt that India start as the firm favourites against Sri Lanka in the two-Test series.
