India vs Sri Lanka Test Head to Head: 23-7 (47 Matches)
By CricketTaken EditorialPublished Cricket in India16 min read
India have won 23 of the 47 Tests they have played against Sri Lanka and lost seven, with seventeen drawn. Every one of those seven defeats came in Sri Lanka. In twenty-two Tests staged in India across forty years the visitors have never won, and only nine of those matches have even been drawn.
That is the fixture in a sentence, and it is why the interesting half of it is the away half. India's record in Sri Lanka reads 10-7 from twenty-five Tests with eight draws — closer than anything they manage at home, and for a long stretch of the 2000s it ran against them. The most recent match, at Galle from 15 to 19 August 2026, went India's way by 165 runs, with the slow left-armer Manav Suthar taking 4 for 76 and 6 for 55.
The two countries first met at Chepauk in September 1982, in what was only Sri Lanka's second Test. Duleep Mendis made 105 in each innings, Sunil Gavaskar 155 and Sandeep Patil 144, and the match was drawn. Sri Lanka then waited three years for a win and have not managed one on Indian soil since.
Twenty-two at home, twenty-five away, and no neutral ground
Figures to the Galle Test of August 2026.
| Where played | Tests | India won | Sri Lanka won | Drawn | Span |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In India | 22 | 13 | 0 | 9 | 1982-2022 |
| In Sri Lanka | 25 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 1985-2026 |
| All Tests | 47 | 23 | 7 | 17 | 1982-2026 |
The two rows are almost the same size and tell opposite stories. Thirteen wins and no defeats in India is the cleanest home column India hold against any side they have met more than twenty times. Ten wins and seven defeats in Sri Lanka is an ordinary away record that only turned respectable after 2015.
There is no third row. India and Sri Lanka have never played a Test at a venue in a third country — the one match outside a bilateral tour, the Asian Test Championship fixture of February 1999, was at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo. Forty-seven Tests, two countries, no neutral venue: unusual for a fixture of this length, and a consequence of the two boards having always preferred home-and-away tours to shared tournaments.
The 1985 breakthrough, and the decade nothing finished
| Decade | Tests | India won | Sri Lanka won | Drawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 1990s | 13 | 5 | 0 | 8 |
| 2000s | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| 2010s | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 |
| 2020s (to Aug 2026) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Sri Lanka's win at the P Sara Oval in September 1985, by 149 runs, was their first Test victory over India and the match that gave them their first series win in any Test rubber. India lost that three-match series 1-0, drawing the other two, and it stands as the only series Sri Lanka have won against them by more than a single match margin at home until 2001.
The 1990s row is the strange one. Thirteen Tests, five Indian wins, no Sri Lankan wins and eight draws — including every single match played between August 1997 and February 1999. Two drawn Tests in Colombo, three more drawn in Mohali, Nagpur and Mumbai that winter, and the drawn Asian Test Championship game the following year made six results-free matches in a row. Pitches in both countries at the end of that decade were built for batting, and the scorecards from those six Tests carry three totals above 600.
Every series since 1982
| Season | Host | Tests | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982-83 | India | 1 | Drawn 0-0 |
| 1985 | Sri Lanka | 3 | Sri Lanka won 1-0 |
| 1986-87 | India | 3 | India won 2-0 |
| 1990-91 | India | 1 | India won 1-0 |
| 1993 | Sri Lanka | 3 | India won 1-0 |
| 1993-94 | India | 3 | India won 3-0 |
| 1997 | Sri Lanka | 2 | Drawn 0-0 |
| 1997-98 | India | 3 | Drawn 0-0 |
| 1999 | Sri Lanka | 1 | Drawn (Asian Test Championship) |
| 2001 | Sri Lanka | 3 | Sri Lanka won 2-1 |
| 2005-06 | India | 3 | India won 2-0 |
| 2008 | Sri Lanka | 3 | Sri Lanka won 2-1 |
| 2009-10 | India | 3 | India won 2-0 |
| 2010 | Sri Lanka | 3 | Drawn 1-1 |
| 2015 | Sri Lanka | 3 | India won 2-1 |
| 2017 | Sri Lanka | 3 | India won 3-0 |
| 2017-18 | India | 3 | India won 1-0 |
| 2022 | India | 2 | India won 2-0 |
| 2026 | Sri Lanka | in progress | India lead 1-0 |
Eighteen completed engagements plus the one-off Colombo match of 1999. India have won ten of the eighteen, Sri Lanka two, and six were drawn. Both Sri Lankan series wins were 2-1 at home, in 2001 and 2008, and both followed the same pattern: a heavy home win at the SSC, an Indian reply, and a decider that went the hosts' way.
The 3-0 in India in early 1994 — Lucknow, Bangalore and Ahmedabad, all by an innings — was the first clean sweep either side managed. The 3-0 in Sri Lanka in 2017 is the more remarkable of the two, because no visiting side had swept a three-Test series there before. The 2015 series that preceded it was India's first series win in Sri Lanka since 1993, a gap of twenty-two years, and Virat Kohli's first as a full-time Test captain; that arc is traced in more detail on the India Test captains page.
Colombo 1997 and the 952
The fixture holds the highest total in Test history and a good deal else besides.
| Total | Team | Ground | Start date | Match result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 952/6d | Sri Lanka | Colombo (RPS) | 2 Aug 1997 | Drawn |
| 760/7d | Sri Lanka | Ahmedabad | 16 Nov 2009 | Drawn |
| 726/9d | India | Brabourne | 2 Dec 2009 | India won by inns & 24 runs |
| 707 | India | Colombo (SSC) | 26 Jul 2010 | Drawn |
| 676/7 | India | Kanpur | 17 Dec 1986 | Drawn |
| 642/4d | Sri Lanka | Colombo (SSC) | 26 Jul 2010 | Drawn |
| 642 | India | Kanpur | 24 Nov 2009 | India won by inns & 144 runs |
| 622/9d | India | Colombo (SSC) | 3 Aug 2017 | India won by inns & 53 runs |
| 610/6d | Sri Lanka | Colombo (SSC) | 29 Aug 2001 | Sri Lanka won by inns & 77 runs |
| 610/6d | India | Nagpur | 24 Nov 2017 | India won by inns & 239 runs |
| 600/6d | Sri Lanka | Colombo (SSC) | 23 Jul 2008 | Sri Lanka won by inns & 239 runs |
| 600 | India | Galle | 26 Jul 2017 | India won by 304 runs |
Sri Lanka's 952 for 6 declared at the R Premadasa Stadium in August 1997 is the largest team score in Test cricket, and it was made in reply to India's 537 for 8 declared. Sanath Jayasuriya's 340 and Roshan Mahanama's 225 produced a second-wicket stand of 576. India bowled 271 overs and took six wickets. Nothing that happens in this fixture again is likely to top it.
The Colombo Test of July 2010 is the only other match here in which both sides passed 640: Sri Lanka 642 for 4 declared, India 707, and a draw that used the full five days. India's own place in the game's biggest-total lists is set out on the highest Test partnerships page.
At the other end, ten totals in the fixture have finished below 145, and every one of them came in a defeat.
| Total | Team | Overs | Ground | Start date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 82 | Sri Lanka | 51.5 | Chandigarh | 23 Nov 1990 |
| 109 | Sri Lanka | 35.5 | Bengaluru | 12 Mar 2022 |
| 112 | India | 49.5 | Galle | 12 Aug 2015 |
| 119 | Sri Lanka | 63.5 | Ahmedabad | 8 Feb 1994 |
| 134 | Sri Lanka | 43.4 | Colombo (PSS) | 20 Aug 2015 |
| 135 | Sri Lanka | 37.4 | Pallekele | 12 Aug 2017 |
| 136 | Sri Lanka | 47.3 | Galle | 31 Jul 2008 |
| 138 | India | 45.0 | Colombo (SSC) | 23 Jul 2008 |
| 141 | Sri Lanka | 48.4 | Nagpur | 27 Dec 1986 |
| 142 | Sri Lanka | 59.0 | Cuttack | 4 Jan 1987 |
Sri Lanka's 82 at Chandigarh in November 1990, in the only Test that ground has staged, is the lowest. India's 112 at Galle in August 2015 is theirs, and it lost them a match they had led on first innings. The Bengaluru records page covers the day-night Test of March 2022 in which Sri Lanka were dismissed for 109.
Batting: nine hundreds for Tendulkar, one innings of 340 against them
Qualification for the tables below is 700 runs in the fixture.
India's leading run scorers against Sri Lanka in Tests.
| Batter | Span | Mat | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sachin Tendulkar | 1990-2010 | 25 | 36 | 1,995 | 203 | 60.45 | 9 | 6 |
| Rahul Dravid | 1997-2010 | 20 | 32 | 1,508 | 177 | 48.64 | 3 | 9 |
| Virender Sehwag | 2005-2010 | 11 | 18 | 1,239 | 293 | 72.88 | 5 | 3 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 1985-1999 | 17 | 23 | 1,215 | 199 | 55.22 | 5 | 4 |
| Virat Kohli | 2015-2022 | 11 | 18 | 1,085 | 243 | 67.81 | 5 | 2 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 1997-2008 | 14 | 24 | 1,064 | 173 | 46.26 | 3 | 4 |
| Navjot Sidhu | 1993-1997 | 11 | 13 | 935 | 131 | 71.92 | 4 | 3 |
| VVS Laxman | 1999-2010 | 13 | 22 | 900 | 104 | 47.36 | 2 | 8 |
| Cheteshwar Pujara | 2015-2017 | 7 | 11 | 743 | 153 | 74.30 | 4 | 1 |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 2015-2017 | 6 | 10 | 712 | 190 | 71.20 | 3 | 2 |
Sri Lanka's leading run scorers against India.
| Batter | Span | Mat | Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | 100s | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mahela Jayawardene | 1997-2010 | 18 | 28 | 1,822 | 275 | 67.48 | 6 | 8 |
| Kumar Sangakkara | 2001-2015 | 17 | 28 | 1,352 | 219 | 52.00 | 5 | 2 |
| Aravinda de Silva | 1985-1999 | 19 | 32 | 1,252 | 148 | 41.73 | 5 | 3 |
| Angelo Mathews | 2009-2022 | 17 | 30 | 1,051 | 111 | 35.03 | 3 | 4 |
| Sanath Jayasuriya | 1993-2001 | 10 | 16 | 938 | 340 | 67.00 | 3 | 2 |
| Roshan Mahanama | 1990-1997 | 12 | 20 | 924 | 225 | 46.20 | 2 | 2 |
| Arjuna Ranatunga | 1982-1999 | 20 | 33 | 867 | 111 | 27.09 | 1 | 5 |
| Thilan Samaraweera | 2001-2010 | 13 | 20 | 845 | 137* | 65.00 | 3 | 5 |
| Tillakaratne Dilshan | 2005-2010 | 12 | 20 | 819 | 125* | 48.17 | 3 | 4 |
| Marvan Atapattu | 1990-2005 | 14 | 22 | 791 | 108 | 37.66 | 2 | 3 |
Sachin Tendulkar's nine centuries against Sri Lanka span twenty years, from Colombo in 1993 to the last of his three tours there. Virender Sehwag's 293 at the Brabourne Stadium in December 2009 is the highest score by an Indian in the fixture, made in the innings that reached 726 for 9. Virat Kohli's 243 at the Feroz Shah Kotla in December 2017 is the next.
Two Sri Lankan rows deserve reading twice. Jayasuriya's 938 runs came from only sixteen innings and include the 340; take that single innings out and the remaining fifteen produce fewer than 600. Arjuna Ranatunga played twenty Tests against India, more than any other Sri Lankan, and averaged 27.09 with a single hundred — a reminder that the fixture's early pitches were not always the featherbeds of 1997.
Bowling: Muralitharan's 105, and Kumble's 74
Qualification is 20 wickets.
India's leading wicket takers against Sri Lanka.
| Bowler | Span | Mat | Wkts | BBI | Ave | Econ | 5w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anil Kumble | 1993-2008 | 18 | 74 | 7/59 | 31.20 | 2.67 | 4 |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | 2015-2022 | 11 | 62 | 6/46 | 21.93 | 2.99 | 3 |
| Harbhajan Singh | 1999-2015 | 16 | 53 | 7/62 | 39.77 | 3.17 | 2 |
| Kapil Dev | 1982-1994 | 14 | 45 | 5/110 | 26.55 | 2.64 | 1 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 2017-2026 | 8 | 37 | 5/41 | 24.62 | 2.86 | 2 |
| Ishant Sharma | 2008-2017 | 12 | 36 | 5/54 | 35.88 | 3.56 | 1 |
| Zaheer Khan | 2001-2009 | 9 | 28 | 5/72 | 38.71 | 3.67 | 1 |
| Venkatapathy Raju | 1990-1994 | 5 | 26 | 6/12 | 14.84 | 1.81 | 3 |
| Maninder Singh | 1985-1987 | 5 | 24 | 7/51 | 20.45 | 2.57 | 1 |
| Mohammed Shami | 2017-2022 | 7 | 24 | 4/100 | 23.54 | 3.32 | 0 |
Sri Lanka's leading wicket takers against India.
| Bowler | Span | Mat | Wkts | BBI | Ave | Econ | 5w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muttiah Muralitharan | 1993-2010 | 22 | 105 | 8/87 | 32.61 | 2.92 | 7 |
| Ajantha Mendis | 2008-2010 | 6 | 34 | 6/117 | 29.00 | 3.19 | 2 |
| Rangana Herath | 2009-2017 | 11 | 33 | 7/48 | 48.06 | 3.24 | 2 |
| Chaminda Vaas | 1997-2008 | 14 | 30 | 4/20 | 44.76 | 2.86 | 0 |
| Rumesh Ratnayake | 1985-1990 | 6 | 26 | 6/85 | 29.07 | 3.02 | 2 |
| Dhammika Prasad | 2008-2015 | 6 | 22 | 4/43 | 34.50 | 3.89 | 0 |
| Ashantha de Mel | 1982-1986 | 5 | 20 | 5/64 | 37.90 | 3.37 | 2 |
Muttiah Muralitharan's 105 wickets are more than three times the next Sri Lankan tally, and his 800th and last Test wicket came against India, at Galle in July 2010. Anil Kumble's 74 is the Indian equivalent, taken across fifteen years and including four five-wicket hauls.
The two best averages on either list belong to bowlers with short samples. Venkatapathy Raju took 26 wickets in five Tests at 14.84 and conceded 1.81 an over, figures that belong to the turning pitches of the 1990-91 and 1993-94 home series; his 6 for 12 at Chandigarh helped bowl Sri Lanka out for 82. Fabian Ahangama's three Tests in 1985 produced eighteen wickets at 19.33 and fall below the twenty-wicket cut, which is why he does not appear above. The broader story of Indian spin against subcontinental opposition is on the spin bowling tradition page.
The last ten Tests
Most recent first.
| Start date | Ground | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug 2026 | Galle | India won by 165 runs |
| 12 Mar 2022 | Bengaluru | India won by 238 runs |
| 4 Mar 2022 | Mohali | India won by inns & 222 runs |
| 2 Dec 2017 | Delhi | Drawn |
| 24 Nov 2017 | Nagpur | India won by inns & 239 runs |
| 16 Nov 2017 | Eden Gardens | Drawn |
| 12 Aug 2017 | Pallekele | India won by inns & 171 runs |
| 3 Aug 2017 | Colombo (SSC) | India won by inns & 53 runs |
| 26 Jul 2017 | Galle | India won by 304 runs |
| 28 Aug 2015 | Colombo (SSC) | India won by 117 runs |
Eight wins and two draws. India's last defeat in the fixture was at Galle on 12-16 August 2015, and the eleven Tests since have produced nine Indian wins and two draws.
Five things the win column does not show
- Twelve of India's 23 wins have been by an innings, against two of Sri Lanka's seven. The fixture rewards whoever bats first well, and India have done it more often.
- Sri Lanka's seven wins fall in only five calendar years — 1985, 2001, 2008, 2010 and 2015 — and all seven were at Galle, the SSC or the P Sara Oval.
- Every one of the ten lowest completed innings totals in the fixture came in a losing cause. There is no equivalent of a heroic rearguard low score here.
- The 1997 calendar year produced five Tests between the sides and five draws, in two countries, and one of them ran to the highest innings total the game has recorded.
- India's unbeaten home record now covers twenty-two Tests and eight separate visits by Sri Lanka. Only nine of those matches were drawn, and four of the nine were in the batting-flat winter of 1997-98.
The one-day record between the two, which runs to far more matches and is far tighter than this one, is on the India versus Sri Lanka ODI head-to-head page, and the Twenty20 record on the India versus Sri Lanka T20I head-to-head. For how India's Test side developed across the same decades, see the India Test cricket history guide, and for everything else the Indian game covers, start at cricket in India.
Sources and method
The match ledger, the venue split and the batting and bowling aggregates on this page come from ESPNcricinfo's Statsguru, filtered to men's Test matches between India and Sri Lanka and read on 20 August 2026. The last completed match at that date was the first Test of the 2026 tour, at Galle from 15 to 19 August; the rest of that series had not been played, so the series table shows it as in progress rather than giving it a result.
Home and away rows use Statsguru's own host classification and add to the overall line of 47 matches, 23 India wins, seven Sri Lanka wins and seventeen draws. The decade grouping was made from the match list by year of first day and reconciles to the same totals. The series table was rebuilt from that list rather than lifted from a published summary, which is why the Asian Test Championship match of February 1999 is shown separately instead of being folded into a bilateral rubber.
The lowest-totals table counts only innings in which all ten wickets fell, so declarations and unfinished fourth innings are excluded even where the score was smaller. Batting and bowling tables are ordered by aggregate and carry the stated cut-off — 700 runs and 20 wickets — because averages drawn from three or four matches are not comparable with averages drawn from twenty. Where a rate is discussed in the prose, the sample behind it is named. Match margins and individual scores were checked against the relevant scorecards; nothing here was derived from ball-by-ball data, and the numbers are accurate to the date given rather than indefinitely.