11 Indian cricketers who made their Test debuts against Sri Lanka

#3. Suresh Raina

Raina scored a sensational century on his Test debut

Raina made a few sporadic appearances for the Indian ODI team from 2005-2007 before becoming a regular in the ODI and T20 team from 2008 onwards. He established himself as one of India’s most reliable middle-order batsmen in the limited-overs format and in 2010, he was selected in the Test team for the Tour of Sri Lanka.

He did not play in the first Test but was chosen to play in the second Test because Yuvraj Singh was ruled out of the game owing to illness. Raina came in to bat at No.6 to join Sachin Tendulkar at the crease and he scored a brilliant 120 on his Test debut, sharing a partnership of 256 with Sachin Tendulkar as India made 707 in their first innings in reply to Sri Lanka’s 642/4.

Despite Yuvi being available for the third Test, Raina was chosen to play ahead of him. The left-handed batsman scored 62 and an unbeaten 41 in the first and second innings respectively as India went on to win the match by 5 wickets, thus levelling the series.

Raina went on to be a regular for the Test team until 2012 before being dropped from the side. However, he did play a match in 2015 against Australia at Sydney in 2015, scoring zero in both innings and hasn’t played a Test match since.

#2. Ashish Nehra

Nehra played his first international match against Sri Lanka in 1999

The tall pacer was first selected in the Indian Test team for the inaugural Asian Test Championship featuring India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. He made his Test debut in the second Test of the competition between India and Sri Lanka at Colombo.

Nehra’s first Test scalp was Marvan Atapattu but he took no wickets in the remainder of the innings with Sri Lanka wrapping up at 485 in reply to India’s 518/7. Nehra did not get a chance to bowl any more in the match as there was no second innings for Sri Lanka with the match ending in a draw.

The Delhi boy did not play another Test before 2001 against South Africa and was a regular in the Indian Test side until 2004 with his last Test coming against Pakistan at Rawalpindi where he took the wicket of Yasir Hameed. Nehra has 44 Test wickets to his name with 4/72 against Zimbabwe at Harare in 2001 being his best bowling figures in Tests.