Sri Lanka have won one of their last ten Tests, and Kusal Mendis is now their captain in all three formats
Dhananjaya de Silva has given up the Sri Lanka Test captaincy after 18 matches, and Kusal Mendis takes over with the Pakistan Tests a month away.
Oct 8, 2026
Dhananjaya de Silva wrote to the selectors, said it was time for the next generation and stepped down as Sri Lanka’s Test captain with immediate effect. The job did not stay empty for long. Before Thursday, 8 October, was out, Sri Lanka Cricket had given it to Kusal Mendis, who already leads the ODI and T20I sides.
“It’s my genuine opinion that the mantle should go down to the next generation,” de Silva wrote in his letter to the selection committee. He is 35, and he has made clear he is still available to play.
Seven wins in 18 Tests
De Silva took over from Dimuth Karunaratne at the start of 2024 and led Sri Lanka in 18 Tests. They won seven, lost eight and drew three.
The first eight months went well. Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan in Colombo, won both Tests in Bangladesh, and took the last Test at The Oval after losing the first two in England. In September 2024 they beat New Zealand twice in Galle, the second time by an innings and 154 runs.
It has been much harder since. Starting with the Durban Test in November 2024, Sri Lanka have played ten Tests and won one, by an innings and 78 runs against Bangladesh at the SSC in June 2025. They lost both Tests in South Africa and both at home to Australia. In June this year West Indies beat them by an innings and 217 runs in North Sound, and in August India won the first Test in Galle by 165 runs before the second in Colombo was drawn.
Mendis gets his first Test in Rawalpindi
Mendis is 31. He has played 75 Tests and made 4,836 runs at 36.36, with ten hundreds and a highest score of 245. He has captained Sri Lanka in 22 ODIs, but never in a Test.
A hamstring injury kept him out of the T20Is in England in September, and Charith Asalanka led the side there. Mendis is back in charge for the three T20Is against Pakistan at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on 9, 11 and 13 October.
The Tests follow, and both count towards the World Test Championship: Rawalpindi from 9 November, then Lahore from 17 November. Mendis gets about four weeks between the last T20I and his first morning as Test captain. He also inherits a side that has not won a Test since June 2025, and turning that round is the job de Silva has handed on.