Sri Lanka lose Kusal Mendis for both Tests and Nissanka for Galle, four days before India start

Sri Lanka start a home series against India in Galle on Saturday without the two batters they would most want in the side. Kusal Mendis is out of both Tests with a right hamstring injury. Pathum Nissanka misses the first one, and whether he plays the second in Colombo depends on a wrist that has already been operated on once this year.

A hamstring, pulled in a Lanka Premier League match

Mendis went down chasing a run for Colombo Kaps against Kandy Royals at the SSC on 19 July. He was ruled out of the rest of the Lanka Premier League that week. Nearly four weeks on, the hamstring has not cleared in time, and he will not play either Test.

This is the part that hurts most. Mendis has played 75 Tests and made close to 5,000 runs in them, and he keeps wicket. Replacing a batter is one job. Replacing a batter who also takes the gloves means the selectors are solving two problems with one pick, and neither solution is obvious.

Nissanka’s wrist has already cost him a month

Nissanka had wrist surgery earlier in the summer and missed the second Test of Sri Lanka’s tour of the West Indies in early July. He sat out the Lanka Premier League as well while the wrist was managed. India was supposed to be the comeback. Instead he has been left out of the Galle Test, with the Colombo match starting on 23 August as his earliest way back.

He averages 45 across 18 Tests, which is the best return of any specialist batter Sri Lanka can currently pick. His career-best 187 came against Bangladesh at Galle in June 2025, on the ground where this series starts. Sri Lanka now have to find an opener and a wicketkeeper in the same week.

They were already beaten in the Caribbean

Sri Lanka lost the first Test at North Sound by an innings and 217 runs, folding for 101 in the second innings after making 308 in the first. They batted much better in the second Test, declaring on 549 for 9, but a draw was enough to hand West Indies a series they had waited eleven attempts to win.

That is the context for the next fortnight. A batting order that was found out in the Caribbean now loses its most capped member and its most productive one, in a series that counts towards the World Test Championship.

What Sri Lanka still have

Galle itself, mostly. Dhananjaya de Silva leads the side, Kamindu Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal give the middle order some experience, and Prabath Jayasuriya has built most of his Test career on that ground. A Galle pitch that turns by the third afternoon flattens a lot of the difference between two sides, which is why visiting teams rarely find the place straightforward.

India are not arriving in perfect shape either. Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out with a knee problem and Auqib Nabi came in for him. A toe stress reaction took Sai Sudharsan out of the squad on Sunday, with Sarfaraz Khan named as the replacement. Washington Sundar, who hurt a hamstring in the second one-day international against England at Cardiff on 16 July, misses Galle and is fighting to be fit for Colombo. Shubman Gill captains, with KL Rahul as his deputy, and the visitors beat a Sri Lanka Cricket XI by six wickets in a Colombo warm-up game before moving south.

The series that follows

Both Tests are in the World Test Championship cycle, which is the reason neither side can treat this as a friendly. Sri Lanka have not hosted India in a Test since 2017, a series they lost 3-0 at home. They get them back with a top order picked around two absences, on the one ground in the country where that might not settle the match on its own.

The first Test runs from 15 to 19 August at Galle. The second starts on 23 August at the Sinhalese Sports Club.

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