Sri Lanka’s second string made 363 at the NCC, and Manav Suthar was India’s best bowler
Eight days before the first Test at Galle, India’s attack spent 90 overs in the field at the Nondescripts and got one wicket out of its seamers.
Aug 7, 2026
India spent the first day of their only red-ball rehearsal before Galle chasing leather. Sri Lanka Cricket XI, a side drawn from the island’s domestic circuit, batted through all 90 overs at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo on Friday and closed on 363 for 8. Six of those eight wickets went to spin. One went to a run out. The three seamers India picked shared a single wicket between them.
None of it counts for anything on a scoreboard. The tour game runs to 9 August, carries no points and will not be remembered in a fortnight. What it does carry is the last competitive overs India’s bowlers get before the first Test starts at Galle on 15 August, and on that measure day one was a long one.
A 110-run opening stand set the tone
Sonal Dinusha won the toss and batted, and his openers made the decision look obvious. Nishan Fernando went after the new ball for 66 off 65, eleven fours in there, before Manav Suthar’s throw found KL Rahul and ran him out with the opening stand worth 110 in the 21st over.
Ravindu Rasantha took the other route. He faced 143 balls for 71, which on a surface offering the bowlers very little was the innings that made the total safe. By the time Suthar had him caught by a substitute fielder in the 50th over, Sri Lanka Cricket XI were 201 for 3 and India had been in the field for the better part of two sessions without looking like running through anyone.
The middle order kept the rate up rather than the wickets falling. Pavan Rathnayake made 39 off 47, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 35, Ahan Wickramasinghe 31, and Dinusha himself batted at six for 52 off 72 before Suthar trapped him lbw. Ramesh Mendis added 32 from number eight. Nobody made a hundred and nobody needed to.
Suthar was the pick, Kuldeep went for four an over
The one bowler who came out of the day with figures worth reading was Manav Suthar. Thirteen overs, one maiden, 33 runs, two wickets, and an economy rate of 2.53 that no other India bowler came close to. The 24-year-old left-armer took 6 for 33 on debut against Afghanistan on 8 June, the second-best figures by an India bowler in a first Test after Narendra Hirwani’s 8 for 61 in 1988, and has spent the weeks since with Warwickshire in the County Championship. On the evidence of Friday he has not lost anything in the interim.
Ravindra Jadeja bowled 15 overs and finished with 2 for 64. Kuldeep Yadav sent down 18 without a maiden and went for 76, though he did take the two wickets that broke the middle order. Saransh Jain, uncapped and picked for this tour on the back of his domestic record, bowled 11 overs for 54 and did not get one.
Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna bowled 21 overs between them and took nothing. Gurnoor Brar had the only seam wicket of the innings. In Galle that will matter less than it reads, because India are not going there to bowl seam. It is still not the day out the quicks would have wanted.
Auqib Nabi did not bowl
The name missing from the bowling card is the one that arrived last. Auqib Nabi was called into the squad after Jasprit Bumrah’s left knee ruled him out, having taken 60 wickets in the Ranji season that ended with Jammu and Kashmir winning their first title. He is in the party of 15 for this match. He did not send down an over on day one.
Sides carrying 15 players in a three-day game rotate the workload, so this is not on its own a signal about the Galle XI. There are two days left and India bat next. But if the plan is to give Nabi a look before the Tests, the window for it is now fairly narrow.
Eight days to the first Test
Rahul led the side because Shubman Gill took an impact injury to his right ring finger in practice on Thursday and was withdrawn from day one as a precaution. The BCCI said its medical team was monitoring him and ruled nothing out beyond that single day.
India bat on Saturday, which is the part of this fixture that actually matters. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal and Rishabh Pant all need time against spin on a Sri Lankan surface before Galle, where the ball turns from early and the questions are about patience rather than technique. Ninety overs in the field on day one leaves them two days to get it.