India vs Sri Lanka 1st Test Match Playing 11: Kuldeep, Suthar included; Jurel to be preferred over Sarfaraz
3 min readAug 14, 2026 05:59 PM IST
India play their first Test in Sri Lanka in nearly a decade starting on Saturday, when the country celebrates its Independence Day. The visitors completely flattened Sri Lanka on their last visit in the country for a Test series in 2017 but since then, Indian batters’ credentials of facing spin has come under sharp scrutiny due to their abject failures against New Zealand and South Africa at home.
It is also the start of what could be an uphill struggle for India to avoid failing to qualify for the a second successive World Test Championship final. The visitors were dealt a blow well before their visit to Sri Lanka even started with premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah ruled out. Spin-bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar is also out for this Test, and possibly the next one as well. It means that India could probably go with a spin department consisting of Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar and Ravindra Jadeja.
It will be more interesting to see who among Gurnoor Brar and Prasidh Krishna gets the nod to partner Mohammed Siraj as India’s second pacer. Brar impressed in the warm-up game that India played but Prasidh has more experience. Captain Shubman Gill kept his cards close to his chest at the pre-match press conference. “They both are very skilled bowlers, and they bowled really well in the practice match. We have seen how good Gurnoor is with the old ball when nothing is happening,” Gill said in the pre-match press conference on Friday. You need that extra pace, extra bounce. He’s obviously very tall as well. But I think Prasidh recently has been bowling the best that I have ever seen him bowl. In the red ball and also in white ball. So it would be a very tough decision for us to be able to just pick one”.
Probable India Playing X for first Test vs Sri Lanka
India: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Ravindra Jadeja, Manav Suthar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
India vs Zimbabwe squads
India Squad: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Tilak Varma, Shreyas Iyer(c), Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Prince Yadav, Yash Thakur, Ashok Sharma, Mayank Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Prabhsimran Singh, Harsh Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi
