SL vs IND 2026, SLCXI vs IND Tour Match Match Report, August 07 – 09, 2026

Sri Lanka Cricket XI 363 for 8 (Rasantha 71, Nishan 66, Dinusha 52, Suthar 2-33, Jadeja 2-64, Kuldeep 2-76) vs India

Seven batters passed thirty, three reached fifty, but none scored more than Ravindu Rasantha’s 71. That pretty much summed up the Sri Lanka Cricket XI’s batting effort on the opening day of India’s sole tour match, as 363 runs were scored and eight wickets fell on a sweltering day at the NCC in Colombo.

At the crease at stumps were Dilum Sudeera (1*) and Kesara Nuwantha (9*). India will be pleased with their efforts and their spinners in particular, with each of Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Manav Suthar picking up two wickets apiece, though it was Kuldeep that saw the heaviest workload with 18 overs. There was a solitary scalp for Gurnoor Brar and a run-out thrown into the mix. Seven bowlers were used in total, with Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Saransh Jain all going wicketless.

The SLC XI had maintained a healthy run rate of 4.03 across their innings, largely down to their batters being unafraid to take on the bowling. The boundary count of 47, inclusive of six sixes, were spread quite evenly across the three sessions and accounted for 200 runs – 55% of the runs scored.

This also highlighted perhaps the rust present in this Indian attack as far as red-ball cricket is concerned, a fact not likely helped by the presence of two uncapped players and two others with a collective eight caps between them.

Nowhere was this present more than the opening hour, as Sri Lanka’s openers skipped along at five an over across a 110-run opening stand. Nishan Fernando in particular looked in good fettle, romping to a 65-ball 66 – if not for a catastrophic run out where both batters ended up at the same end, he was looking set for a big one.

Rasantha was more conservative as he moved to 71 off 143 before being done in by some flight and dip from Suthar, jumping out to the pitch of it but slicing an attempted loft down the ground to mid-off sitting on the edge of ring. That brought to an end a fledgling 30-run stand with Pavan Rathnayake, either side of which were partnerships worth 61 and 45. That none of these partnerships grew into anything of more substance we’ll be disappointing for a set of batters, each with their own ambitions of making the national XI for the second Test, if not the first.

From a Sri Lankan perspective the types of wickets to fall would have been disappointing. Pasindu Sooriyabandara missed a pull on a length ball off Jadeja as it skid through to off stump, while Rathnayake pulled one straight to backward square leg off Brar. Both these, combined with the soft dismissals either side of them, meant the hosts had slipped to 246 for 4, having at one point been poised on a fairly commanding 171 for 1.

That would soon become 250 for 5, as Kuldeep induced a top edge off a Ahan Wickramasinghe sweep. Kuldeep got his second shortly after the drinks break in the final session, skidding one through as Anjala Bandara was caught on the crease looking to cut.

Despite these setbacks, the batters continued positively as Ramesh Mendis joined the captain Sonal Dinusha, and the pair put together the second highest stand of the innings with an 84-ball 63. But just like those that preceded them, this stand too was brought to an early halt with Mendis edging a late cut low to Devdutt Padikkal at first slip, who held on fantastically well.

That was Jadeja’s second, to go with Kuldeep’s pair, and Suthar would soon join them sneaking one under Dinusha’s sweep to trap the skipper leg before for a 72-ball 52 minutes before the close of play.

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