Sarfaraz last played a Test in 2024, the year in which he also made his debut. He has played six Tests so far, scoring 371 runs, including one century and three fifties.
Although he was part of India’s squad for the 2024-25 tour of Australia, he did not get a game and was subsequently left out of the squad for the England tour last year.
“It was just a precaution more than anything else,” Bahutule said after the end 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 will start on August 15 in Galle, with the second Test scheduled from August 23 at the SSC in Colombo. It will be part of the WTC in which India currently sit in fifth spot after four wins and as many losses from nine games.
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, Sarfaraz Khan
