India, head coach Gambhir eye red-ball reset against Sri Lanka

A gruelling trial by spin awaits Indian batters in the two-Test series against Sri Lanka beginning here on Saturday, with head coach Gautam Gambhir’s standing as the country’s red-ball in-charge relying heavily on its outcome.

Under Gambhir, India have been a near-infallible white-ball unit as revealed by their rampaging title-winning runs in the Champions Trophy, Asia Cup and T20 World Cup.

But Test cricket paints a grim picture. Home whitewashes against New Zealand and South Africa have put a hole in India’s World Test Championship ambitions.

Those string of failures and the subsequent exit of a bunch of support staff — two assistant coaches and a fielding coach — have made the need for rejuvenation for Gambhir and the team immediate.

This is not to say that Gambhir will be ousted immediately even if victory eludes the team in the island nations, but the corridors of power will certainly be abuzz some talk about the way forward in the red ball format.

However, finding redemption in Galle is a tough task for visiting teams. Often, dreams die here.

If that sounds glib, then one look at the numbers would be enough.

Sri Lanka have won 27 of the 49 Tests played here since 1998, a dominance built around crafty spinners turning the knife in.

The home nation has long moved away from the heady days of Muttiah Muralitharan and Rangana Herath, but they still have spinners Prabath Jayasuriya and Ramesh Mendis, who have made Galle their fortress.

So, the situation is not to the liking of this particular Indian team, whose batters struggled massively against the likes of Mitchell Santner and Simon Harmer in the not-so-distant past.

But this team carries an eerie similarity to the squad that came to these shores in 2017, the last time India played a Test series here. The Virat Kohli-led outfit featured a bunch of players who were in the middle phase of their careers but went back with a 3-0 triumph, including one at Galle, and it kicked off a period of India’s dominance in Test cricket.

The 2026 squad led by a young captain —Shubman Gill — too is brimming with mid-level seniors and hopefuls, and they are also in need of such a spark that can ignite their journey back to top.