The 2026 season was Galle Gallants' sixth appearance in the Lanka Premier League (LPL). They were one of the five cricket teams that competed in the 2026 LPL. The team was captained by Dasun Shanaka and coached by Pubudu Dassanayake. The team signed four players before the draft and sixteen players in the draft.
Galle Gallants finished in second place in the league stage, and advanced to Qualifier 1 in the playoffs. They lost Qualifier 1 to Jaffna Kings, but won Qualifier 2 against Colombo Kaps to qualify for their fourth final. In the final, they defeated Jaffna Kings to win their maiden LPL title. Sam Harper scored the most runs (425) while Eshan Malinga took the most wickets (17) for Galle in the 2026 season. Malinga was also the highest wicket-taker in the 2026 LPL.
Pre-season The 2026 Lanka Premier League was the 6th edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL), a professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket league, organised by the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). The tournament featured five teams competing in 24 matches from 17 July to 8 August 2026.
Galle Gallants had previously been runners-up in three seasons including the previous season. Ahead of the season, the franchise was purchased by Gallant Sports and Media LLC, led by Kiran Mantripragada, and was renamed to Galle Gallants from Galle Marvels.
Players' draft
In January 2026, the SLC announced that instead of an auction a players' draft would be held ahead of the 2026 season. The players' draft was originally scheduled for 22 March 2026 but was postponed to 1 June 2026. Each team was allowed to sign two overseas and two domestic players before the draft. In the draft, each team was required to sign at least 14 players, with a maximum of 16 players under 10 categories, including 5 overseas players in 4 categories. One overseas player had to be from an associate country while two domestic players had to be under the age of 23.
+ Pre-draft direct signings Category Domestic Overseas Icon Dasun Shanaka Rassie van der Dussen Star Eshan Malinga Litton Das + Players' draft signings Category Domestic Overseas Platinum Charith Asalanka Mohammad Nawaz Gold Pramod Madushan Akif Javed Lasith Croospulle rowspan="2" Vijayakanth Viyaskanth Classic Sahan Arachchige Sam Harper Chamika Karunaratne Mehidy Hasan Miraz Tharindu Rathnayake Emerging U23 Dinura Kalupahana rowspan="2" Yuri Koththigoda Associate Star Haider Ali Optional Gold Kasun Rajitha rowspan="2" Optional Classic Sachindu Colombage
Squad Players with international caps as of the start of the 2026 LPL are listed in bold. Ages are as of . Withdrawn players are indicated by a dagger symbol () and placed at the bottom of the table.
+ Galle Gallants squad for the 2026 Lanka Premier League Name Nationality Birth date Batting style Bowling style Category Notes 3 Tom Rogers Left-handed Right-arm medium Overseas Classic Overseas; replacement 6 Sam Harper Right-handed Overseas Classic Overseas 7 Dasun Shanaka Right-handed Right-arm medium Domestic Icon Captain 18 Nurul Hasan Right-handed Overseas Star Overseas; replacement 21 Mohammad Nawaz Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox Overseas Platinum Overseas 23 Virandeep Singh Right-handed Slow left-arm orthodox Associate Star Overseas; replacement 27 Tharindu Rathnayake Left-handed Ambidextrous spin Domestic Classic 29 Chamika Karunaratne Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast Domestic Classic 35 Yuri Koththigoda Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox Emerging U23 40 Pramod Madushan Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast Domestic Gold 43 Sahan Arachchige Left-handed Right-arm off break Domestic Classic 54 Sachindu Colombage Right-handed Right-arm leg break Optional Classic 55 Vijayakanth Viyaskanth Right-handed Right-arm leg break Domestic Gold 72 Charith Asalanka Left-handed Right-arm off break Domestic Platinum 76 Dinura Kalupahana Right-handed Right-arm medium Emerging U23 88 Akif Javed Left-handed Left-arm medium-fast Overseas Gold Overseas 97 Eshan Malinga Left-handed Right-arm fast Domestic Star Lasith Croospulle Right-handed Right-arm off break Domestic Gold Chris Lynn Right-handed Slow left-arm orthodox Overseas Icon Overseas; replacement Kasun Rajitha Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast Optional Gold 16 Litton Das Right-handed Right-arm off break Overseas Star Overseas; withdrawn 53 Mehidy Hasan Miraz Right-handed Right-arm off break Overseas Classic Overseas; withdrawn 72 Rassie van der Dussen Right-handed Right-arm leg break Overseas Icon Overseas; withdrawn Haider Ali Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox Associate Star Overseas; withdrawn
Support staff Position Name Head coach Pubudu Dassanayake Bowling coach Dinuk Hettiarachchi Fielding coach Gayan Wijekoon Sources:
League stage Galle Gallants began their season with two wins against Jaffna Kings and Colombo Kaps. Then they lost to Dambulla Sixers, won against Jaffna, lost to Kandy Royals, won against Dambulla, lost to Kandy and won against Colombo to finish the league stage at second place with ten points and advanced to Qualifier 1 in the playoffs.
Points table
League progression
Fixtures
Playoffs Bracket
Qualifier 1
Qualifier 2
Final
Statistics At the LPL end of season awards, Galle player Sam Harper was awarded for best sportsmanship.
+ Most runs Runs Player 425 Sam Harper 385 Charith Asalanka 253 Chamika Karunaratne 240 Sahan Arachchige 227 Dasun Shanaka + Most wickets Wickets Player 17 Eshan Malinga 15 Akif Javed 10 Sachindu Colombage 7 Tharindu Rathnayake Mohammad Nawaz
References
External links