Jadeja returns and Saransh Jain earns a first call-up in India’s Sri Lanka Test squad

Ajit Agarkar’s selection panel named a 15-man squad on Tuesday for next month’s two Tests in Sri Lanka, and the list settled one question while leaving two open. Ravindra Jadeja is back. Jasprit Bumrah and Sai Sudharsan are both in, with their availability subject to fitness clearance from the BCCI Centre of Excellence.

Bumrah is picked, not cleared

Bumrah took an impact blow to his left knee while fielding in the second ODI against England at Cardiff on 16 July. Reactive swelling followed, he did not come through a fitness test before the toss at Lord’s, and Arshdeep Singh played the decider instead. Naming him now keeps the option alive without committing to anything, which is broadly how India have managed his red-ball workload for the past two years.

Sudharsan’s case reads better. He made 132 in the first unofficial Test at Galle in late June and another hundred in the second a week later, which is about as direct an audition for a Sri Lanka tour as a batter can give. If he is not passed fit, Devdutt Padikkal is in the squad and made 94 not out in that same second game.

Saransh Jain gets there at 33

The new name is Saransh Jain, the Madhya Pradesh off-spinning all-rounder who has spent a decade accumulating domestic returns without a senior call. His first-class record now reads 188 wickets at 27.30 with ten five-wicket hauls, and 2,223 runs at 31.75 with two hundreds and 14 fifties, from 54 matches.

He also made his case in the conditions India are walking into. In the second unofficial Test at Galle he scored 70 not out and took six wickets across the match, four in the first innings and two in the second, as India A won by ten wickets to take the series.

Sundar’s hamstring reshapes the spin plan

Washington Sundar was unavailable for selection after aggravating a right hamstring in that same Cardiff ODI, and he misses at least the first Test. Losing him costs India twice over, because he was the one bowler in the group who could hold up an end on a turning surface and still bat with the tail some way below him.

India have answered with volume. Jadeja, who has not played since the tennis elbow that forced him off during IPL 2026 in May and who missed the one-off Test against Afghanistan, comes straight back in. Kuldeep Yadav, left-arm spinner Manav Suthar and now Jain give the side four spin options for two Tests, which tells you what the selectors expect from the surfaces.

The rest of the squad, and the schedule

Shubman Gill captains and KL Rahul is vice-captain. The batting around them is Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel, Sudharsan and Padikkal. The seam group is Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Gurnoor Brar, the tall Punjab quick who ran through Sri Lanka A in that second four-day match.

India play a four-day warm-up in Colombo from 7 August. The first Test starts at Galle on 15 August, the second at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo on 23 August, and both carry World Test Championship points.

Stay across India’s Test tour of Sri Lanka