The Sri Lanka men's national cricket team, nicknamed The Lions, represents Sri Lanka in men's international cricket. It is a full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One-Day International (ODI) and T20 International (T20I) status. The team first played international cricket in 1926–27 and became an associate member of the ICC in 1965. They were awarded the Test status in 1981, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket-playing nation. The team is administered by Sri Lanka Cricket.

Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at the international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings in which players have to play until they get all batsmen out; the match ends when all but one of the batsmen of the opposing team are out. It is scheduled to last for up to five days with 6 hours of play each day. A minimum of 90 overs are scheduled to be bowled per day making it the sport with the longest playing time. In the past, some Test matches had no time limit and were called Timeless Tests. The term "test match" was originally coined in 1861–62 but in a different context.