Sri Lanka face next-to-impossible task to break winless run in India

Sri Lanka’s Niroshan Dickwella and then India skipper Virat Kohli shake hands after the drawn third Test in 2017

More than three decades since former India captain Kapil Dev is said to have predicted that Sri Lanka will find it difficult to win a Test series in India, the words of the Haryana Hurricane still ring true. 

He made these comments after Sri Lanka’s first Test series win in 1985 against India. Since then they are yet to win a Test in India, losing 11 of the 20 Tests, with one of those defeats coming in their last tour in 2017. 

They did well to draw two of three Tests, but the innings and 239-run win in the second Test in Nagpur meant the series was still lost. 

Breaking that winless run will be a next to impossible task for Sri Lanka, considering India have a formidable record at home going as far back as 2013, winning 14 consecutive home Test series and losing just two matches in that period – their last home series win against World Test Champions New Zealand. 

A lot has changed since that  2017 tour, with both teams opting to move on in terms of captaincy and coaching, although Sri Lanka are once again travelling with an interim head coach in Rumesh Ratnayake, as they did during the tour to Australia, with a permanent replacement for Mickey Arthur still being deliberated. 

Sri Lanka will have to quickly put behind the disappointing whitewash in the T20I series, where they were comfortably outplayed by hosts India. 

But unlike that series, where Sri Lanka were plagued with injuries to Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana and Kusal Mendis, the Test contingent is at relatively full strength with practices underway in India, the Daily Mirror learns. 

Kusal is on the road to recovery from a hamstring injury he picked up during the tour of Australia last month, and while his participation may not yet be fully confirmed, Sri Lanka’s batting will be more experienced than that which featured in the T20I series. 

The only player missing through injury, from Sri Lanka’s last Test outing, is all-rounder Ramesh Mendis, who was exceptional in that series, at home to West Indies in December 2021, finishing as the leading wicket-taker of the series with 18 scalps. 

Defeated World Test Championship finalists India will be bolstered by the return of Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant, though the former is no longer the captain, being replaced by Rohit Sharma. 

So stacked for choices are India that they can afford to drop as many as four of their Test mainstays in Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha with KL Rahul missing out through injury.

The first Test begins in Mohali on Friday, before a day-night Test in Bengaluru starting on March 12.