Background Before the Warne–Muralidaran Trophy, (1983–2004), Australia and Sri Lanka had played each other 18 times in the 21-year period, there had been four tours each in each country. Out of the 18 tests, Australia had won 11 times while Sri Lanka had won only once, in 1999, and 6 Tests had been drawn. The following were all regular, not Warne–Muralidaran Tests between the two countries:
Inaugural series Shane Warne retired from cricket in 2007 with 708 wickets against his name and
Muttiah Muralitharan played the 2007–2008 series eight wickets short of Warne's tally at the start of the series.
Ricky Ponting stated that he was determined to deny Murali from getting the nine wickets required to surpass Warne as the highest wicket-taker in Test cricket while in Australia. At the end of the series Muralitharan had bagged only four wickets. Australia won the test series and the trophy 2–0. In the second Test,
Kumar Sangakkara was given out when the ball actually hit his shoulder on 192 by umpire
Rudi Koertzen. After the match Koertzen apologised to Sangakkara. During the series
Marvan Atapattu, former
Sri Lankan cricket captain criticised the selecting board of Sri Lanka Cricket saying the selectors were a group of "Muppets headed by a joker" referring to the chairman of selectors,
Ashantha de Mel. Also,
Trent Copeland took his first wicket in tests with his second ball; his victim was
Tillakaratne Dilshan. Also in the first test, the
ICC admitted that the hawk-eye or eagle-eye made an error. On the first day of the third Test
Shaminda Eranga got his first wicket in Tests with his first ball (repeating
Nathan Lyon's feat in the first Test); his victim was
Shane Watson. Also on the first day
Shaun Marsh achieved an average of 209, the highest ever by an Australian.
Michael Hussey was Man of the Match for all three test matches and was also awarded Man of the Series.
2012–13 series Australia completed a clean sweep of the series, winning 3–0.
2016 series Sri Lanka had a poor run leading up to this series, where they lost across all forms in England. The first match at Pallekele was a memorable one for
Kusal Mendis who scored his maiden test century (176) and bowling of
Rangana Herath lead Sri Lanka to a 106-run victory, their first test victory over the visitors in 17 years. The win boosted the confidence of the home team leading to the second test in Galle. Performances by Herath and
Dilruwan Perera sealed the series with a 229-run victory. The spin duo took 18 wickets out of the possible 20 in the game. The third test was at SSC,
Dinesh Chandimal and
Dhananjaya de Silva scored centuries in the first innings. In reply,
Shaun Marsh and
Steven Smith scored centuries for the visitors. In the third and crucial innings,
Kaushal Silva scored a century setting a target of over 300 for the Aussies. On the final day the Australians started to crumble, only
David Warner scored a half-century and no other batsman scored more than 30. Herath took 13 wickets in the match and Sri Lanka managed to win by 163 runs, whitewashing Australia for the first time in their history. Herath won both Man of the match award and Player of the Series awards. With this win, Sri Lanka moved above South Africa in the Test rankings, and Australia lost the top spot in the rankings.
2018–19 series Australia completed a clean sweep of the series, winning 2–0. ==Warne–Muralidaran Trophy series==