The Sri Lankan cricket team is the national cricket team of Sri Lanka. The team first played international cricket in 1926–27, and were later awarded Teststatus in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation. The team is administered by Sri Lanka Cricket.

Sri Lanka's national cricket team achieved considerable success beginning in the 1990s, rising from underdog status to winning the Cricket World Cup in1996. Since then, the team has continued to be a force in international cricket. The Sri Lankan cricket team reached the finals of the 2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups consecutively. But they ended up being runners up in both those occasions. The batting of Sanath Jayasuriya (retired) and Aravinda de Silva(retired), backed up by the bowling of Muttiah Muralitharan (retired) and Chaminda Vaas (retired), among many other talented cricketers, has underpinned the successes of Sri Lankan cricket during the last 15 years.

Sri Lanka have won the Cricket World Cup in 1996, the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 (co-champions with India), have been consecutive runners up in the2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups, and have been runners up in the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009. The Sri Lankan cricket team currently holds several world records, including world records for highest team totals in all three forms of the game, Test, ODI and Twenty20.

List of Sri Lankan Test cricket records

Test cricket is the oldest form of cricket played at international level.^[1] A Test match takes place over a period of five days, and is played by teams representing Full Member nations of the International Cricket Council (ICC).^[2][3] Sri Lanka obtained Full Member status of the ICC in 1981, becoming the eighth nation eligible to play Test cricket.^[4] The Sri Lanka national cricket team played their first Test match on 17 February 1982 against England, and recorded their first victory in a match against India on 6 September 1985.^[5] Since then, they have played nearly 200 matches, against every other Test-playing nation.^[6] Sri Lanka holds the world record for the highest team score, which was established against India in 1997.^[7] The highest partnership in Test cricket was also established by two Sri Lankan batsmen; Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.^[8] Sri Lankan players also hold the highest partnership scores for the second, third, fourth, and sixth wickets.^[9]

Top order batsman and former captain Jayawardene holds several Sri Lankan batting records. He has scored the most runs for Sri Lanka in Test cricket, and is the record holder for the highest number of centuries as well as the highest number of half-centuries. The 374 Jayawardene made against South Africa in 2006 is the highest individual score by a Sri Lankan cricketer, surpassing the previous best of 340 by Sanath Jayasuriya, which was established in 1997.^[10] It is also the fourth-highest individual score in Test cricket. Jayawardene and Jayasuriya are the only Sri Lankan players who have scored triple centuries.^[11]

Muttiah Muralitharan, who was hailed by the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 2002 as the "best bowler ever" in Test cricket, dominates the bowling records for Sri Lanka.^[12] He is the world record holder for the highest number of wickets, the most number of five wickets per innings, as well as the most number of ten wickets per match.^[13] Muralitharan also holds the records for the best bowling average, best figures in an innings, best figures in a match, and best figures in a series. He missed an opportunity to capture all ten wickets in an innings in 2002 against Zimbabwe, when Chaminda Vaas took the last wicket after Muralitharan had taken the previous nine