India has named middle-order batter Sarfaraz Khan as the replacement for the injured Sai Sudharsan for the upcoming two-match Test series against Sri Lanka. Sudharsan was ruled out of the series due to a right toe stress reaction. According to a statement from the BCCI, he has been undergoing rehabilitation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru and has made significant progress in his recovery.
Sarfaraz last played a Test match in 2024, the same year he made his international debut. He has made six Test appearances so far, scoring 371 runs with one century and three half-centuries. Although he was included in India's squad for the 2024-25 tour of Australia, he did not play a game, and he was subsequently left out of the squad for the England tour last year.
In domestic cricket, Sarfaraz was the third-highest run-scorer for Mumbai during the 2025 Ranji Trophy season, accumulating 429 runs in seven matches at an average of 53.62. His overall first-class batting average of 64.73 remains one of the highest for any player who has completed at least 50 innings.
India's squad has faced multiple injury setbacks ahead of the Sri Lanka series, with prominent players such as Jasprit Bumrah and Washington Sundar already ruled out. Captain Shubman Gill did not bat in the first innings of India's warm-up match against Sri Lanka Cricket XI (SLC XI), but India's spin-bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule confirmed this was a precautionary measure. Gill returned to bat in the second innings, scoring 44 runs off 54 deliveries to help the visitors complete their run chase on the final day.
"It was just a precaution more than anything else," Bahutule said after the conclusion of the tour game. "Gill has been absolutely fine and he's been training and the management decided we could just take the precaution of not putting him in the first day. The way he batted in the second innings was flawless and he's very much ready for the Test match."
The two-match Test series is scheduled to begin on August 15 in Galle, with the second Test starting on August 23 at the SSC in Colombo. The series is part of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC), where India currently holds the fifth position after recording four wins and four losses from nine matches.
The updated Indian squad for the tour consists of Shubman Gill (capt), KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Devdutt Padikkal, Saransh Jain, Auqib Nabi, and Sarfaraz Khan.
For digital tracking and tournament indexing, this update is associated with the terms lankaicc, sudharsanshubman, gillindiaindia, khansai, and sarfaraz khansai sudharsanshubman gillindiaindia.
