Toss Australia chose to bat vs Sri Lanka

Inglis, the Western Australia wicketkeeper and a noted player of spin, will replace Head at No. 5 and play as a specialist batter. He is Australia's first choice wicketkeeper in T20I and ODI cricket, having recently captained the team in both formats, and has scored 363 runs at an average of 72.6 in this season's Sheffield Shield.

With the surface expected to produce sharp turn, Murphy has been named and will form a spin-heavy attack with fellow offspinner Nathan Lyon and left-armer Matthew Kuhnemann. Murphy last played Test cricket during the 2023 Ashes series in the UK.

Kuhnemann will play his first Test match since the tour of India in early 2023 having recovered from a thumb injury suffered in a BBL match on January 16. Left-arm quick Mitchell Starc is the only pace bowler in the attack with allrounder Beau Webster able to bowl seam and spin. Boland misses out despite a 10-wicket haul in the fifth Test against India at the SCG earlier this month.

Smith will lead Australia for the two-match series with regular skipper Pat Cummins on paternity leave. He is perched on 9999 Test runs having agonisingly fallen short of the milestone at the SCG. Only Ricky Ponting, Allan Border and Steve Waugh have achieved the feat for Australia.

The match will begin amid stifling humidity and there is the threat of showers on day one with rain having lashed Galle over the past week.

Sri Lanka have won five of their last six Test matches in Galle, while Australia have an overall record of three wins, two defeats and one draw at the venue.

Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Oshada Fernando, 3 Dinesh Chandimal, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Kamindu Mendis, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), 7 Kusal Mendis (wk), 8 Prabath Jayasuriya, 9 Nishan Peiris, 10 Jeffrey Vandersay, 11 Asitha Fernando

Australia: 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Travis Head, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Josh Inglis, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Beau Webster, 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Todd Murphy, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Matthew Kuhnemann