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KEY TAKEAWAYS: - India and Sri Lanka are contesting a two-Test series, meaning Sri Lanka can no longer win it. - 19 of the 27 series in the 2025-27 WTC cycle are two-match affairs. - Gautam Gambhir has backed the three-Test series as the ideal format. Why is India not playing a three-match Test series against SL? India arrives at the Sinhalese Sports Club on Sunday already assured of at least a share of the series. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka would arrive knowing the best they can manage is a 1-1 draw. That is the peculiar arithmetic of a two-Test series, and it has become the default setting of the World Test Championship rather than the exception. Shubman Gill's side won the opener in Galle by 165 runs, which under a three-Test structure would have set up a genuine decider. Instead, the second Test is played for pride, points percentage and little else, with the trophy already beyond Sri Lanka's reach. It is a scenario repeated across the cycle. Of the 27 series in the 2025-27 WTC, 19 consist of only two Tests, and every series scheduled between the seven Test nations outside India, England and Australia is limited to two matches. Head coach Gautam Gambhir addressed the issue directly ahead of the Colombo Test, making clear where he stands on the ideal length of a Test series. MORE: AB de Villiers' controversial takes listed: Five weird claims made by the former South African star Why India are playing only two Tests against Sri Lanka The answer lies in the Future Tours Programme rather than any cricketing logic. Under current WTC regulations, a series needs only a minimum of two matches to count, and boards negotiate bilateral fixtures among themselves rather than working to a fixed template. The calendar is also an immediate constraint. With an ICC event now scheduled almost every year, an expanding roster of franchise T20 leagues eating into the schedule, and a finite number of days available, longer series have been squeezed out. Former ICC chairman Greg Barclay put it plainly when the FTP was drawn up, noting there are only 365 days in a year and that not all of the cricket being demanded was going to fit. Money, meanwhile, is the deeper reason. Five-match series in this cycle are restricted to three marquee contests, the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy in England, the Ashes in Australia and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India, because those are the fixtures broadcasters pay for. India alone are scheduled to play 38 Tests across the four-year cycle, 20 of them against England and Australia. For boards like Sri Lanka Cricket, hosting Tests is a loss-making exercise. Red-ball cricket requires five days of operational costs, minimal gate revenue and limited broadcast value, which is why smaller nations have grown reluctant to commit to longer series even when they would prefer the cricket. (Getty) MORE: 'India should be wary of': Karthik sends warning despite win in Galle Gautam Gambhir and the growing push for three-Test series Speaking at the SSC on Saturday, Gambhir made the case for a three-match structure on purely competitive grounds, arguing it gives a beaten side something to play for. "A three-Test series gives a chance to a team that has lost the first Test to make a comeback and win the series," Gambhir said. He pointed to India's own experience as evidence of what a longer series can produce. "You cannot do that in a two-Test series as the team that lost the first Test, at best, can only draw the series. Remember, it happened with India once after losing the first Test against Australia; the team could still make a comeback," he added. Gambhir is far from alone. Cricket Australia has pushed for a three-Test minimum in the WTC, with chief executive Nick Hockley stating the preference clearly and describing Test cricket as operating in a two-speed economy. The MCC's World Cricket Committee, chaired by Kumar Sangakkara, has recommended a minimum of three Tests per series in the FTP from 2028 onwards. The ICC has explored one workaround, reportedly considering four-day Tests for lower-ranked nations in the 2027-29 cycle. The logic is that a three-Test series could then be completed in under three weeks, with a minimum of 98 overs per day compensating for the lost fifth day, making longer series financially viable for boards that currently cannot afford them. MORE: Kohli stronger batsman than Sachin? Ex-India bowler ridicules ABD's controversial statement Why the two-Test series undermines what the WTC was built for The World Test Championship was created to give bilateral cricket context, yet its own minimum series length routinely strips that context away. A contest in which one side is mathematically eliminated after the first match is not a series in any meaningful sense, and India versus Sri Lanka is simply the latest example. The competitive damage runs deeper than a dead rubber. Two-Test series reward whoever wins the toss in the right conditions, remove any scope for tactical adjustment across a campaign, and produce shared trophies that satisfy nobody. The India-South Africa series that ended 1-1 and the Australia-West Indies contest that finished the same way both left supporters wanting the decider that never came, which is precisely what prompted the MCC's intervention. What makes it harder to accept is that the solution is understood by almost everyone involved. Gambhir, Hockley, and Sangakkara's committee and the boards of the smaller nations all want longer series. The obstacle is that the three countries that could most easily accommodate them are also the three who benefit most from the current arrangement, and until the economics change, Sri Lanka will keep hosting two-Test series they cannot win. For all the latest cricket news, opinion, and commentary and to share your voice, head to our Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter) pages