As Thursday (August 13, 2026) wore on, Shubman Gill’s men trained hard at the Galle International Stadium. Sri Lanka’s southern coastal city stirred awake to the insistent whisper of rains at dawn. Water slanted down like sharp threads but once the clouds dissipated, the heat slithered in like a shroud that choked.
Key Moments
Morkel was clear about the ideal strategy and it centred around excelling in the first innings and exerting pressure: “The first two days will belong to the batting side. Whatever happens at the toss, if you bat first make sure you go big and if you bowl first get the ball in the right areas. Soon Morkel jogged away while the sun bathed the nearby Dutch fort and the Indian Ocean shimmered.
How the key figures performed
In the lead-up to the first Test against Sri Lanka from Saturday (August 15), questions ranged from team-composition to pitch-analysis. Aware of this shortfall in cricket’s longest format, Morkel said: “We came 10 days earlier to give the guys the best opportunity to prepare. They have got the skill to get 20 wickets for us,” Morkel said.
After the net session, India’s bowling coach Morne Morkel jogged a bit, and then faced the media. We haven’t played a lot of red ball cricket and going back into that will be a challenge. We are quite excited to see how these guys can stand up and create pressure. On a surface expected to aid spin, Morkel did not deny the possibility of having three left-arm spinners ranging from the conventional Ravindra Jadeja and Manav Suthar to the unconventional Kuldeep Yadav, plying his chinaman wares. “Kuldeep is an attacking bowler, and with his experience and class we can’t look past. All three are different. One turns a bit more, and one is slightly more accurate. We have prepared for all that can come our way. It’s more about the mental challenge now, facing these conditions, batting time, bowling those spells and getting the ball in the right areas.”
Queried about the pitch, Morkel said: “It looks like a good surface and as the Test goes on, something will happen.
India played a lone Test, the winning one against Afghanistan, earlier this year.