India start a two-Test series in Galle on Saturday, without Bumrah
Gill's first Test of the tour starts Saturday at Galle. Bumrah is out. The pitch was mowed hours after India looked at it.
India play Sri Lanka in the first Test at Galle from Saturday, 15 August, to Wednesday, 19 August, the opening match of a two-Test series in the 2025-27 World Test Championship. The second Test is at Colombo SSC from 23 August. Shubman Gill captains. Jasprit Bumrah is out with a left-knee problem. Auqib Nabi comes in. Ravindra Jadeja is back from injury. Sai Sudharsan is out with a toe injury, which puts Devdutt Padikkal in line at number three after a warm-up hundred.
A Galle Test without Bumrah is a different selection problem, and the mower two days after the visit is the kind of small ground-staff fact that dressing rooms treat as a message. WTC points in a two-match series are expensive. Losing Galle and Colombo becomes a must-not-lose. I also like that Padikkal's case is a hundred in the warm-up plus someone else's toe, which is how most Test careers actually start.
Toss, and the first-session grass will tell you India's XI before the team sheet does. Watch Kuldeep and Jadeja if the square is bare, and Siraj plus Nabi if it is not. Colombo, a week later, is the second half of the same argument.