3 min readUpdated: Aug 9, 2026 08:07 PM IST
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday officially announced that batter Sai Sudharsan was ruled out of the upcoming Sri Lanka Test series and named Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan as replacement.
“Sai Sudharsan has been ruled out of the Test series against Sri Lanka. The left-handed batter, who has been at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (COE) in Bengaluru, has made significant progress in his recovery from the right toe stress reaction and is recovering well. The BCCI Medical Team is closely monitoring his progress,” the BCCI statement revealed.
“The Men’s Selection Committee has named Sarfaraz Khan as a replacement for Sai Sudharsan for the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka. He will link up with the Indian squad in Colombo before the team travels to Galle for the first Test match, starting August 15, 2026,” it added.
🚨 NEWS 🚨
Sai Sudharsan ruled out of the #SLvIND Test series; Sarfaraz Khan named replacement.
Details 🔽 #TeamIndia https://t.co/lF6h8jabZd pic.twitter.com/Dk0C4HI37p
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 9, 2026
Sudharsan, who had suffered a toe injury last month during in India A’s tour to Sri Lanka, failed to recover on time and will hence sit out the 2-Test series, scheduled to start on August 15. He had scored two tons in two ‘A’ Test matches before he was hit during the second game against Sri Lanka ‘A’ and since then has been in rehabilitation at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
Sarfaraz had last played a match for India in November 2024 against New Zealand. He boasts a first class average of 64.73 in 62 matches but has played just six Tests thus far for India, the last of which came in November 2024. His last involvement with the Indian team was on their 2024/25 tour of Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which they lost 4-1.
Last Friday, the batter had posted a photo from the 2019 Telugu film ‘Jersey’ with a caption that read: “I may not fit in, but I’ll fight with everything I’ve got.”
India’s updated squad for the Test series against Sri Lanka: Shubman Gill (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain, Auqib Nabi, Sarfaraz Khan
