With Graeme Smith injured, who usually led the team, and Jacques Kallis unavailable, Prince was named as South Africa's captain for their two-Test tour of Sri Lanka in July 2006. He was their first ever non-white and Haroon Lorgat commented "Ashwell's appointment is a non-event although the enormity and significance of it should not be missed". Despite making two 50s in the series his side struggled and lost 2–0. The first Test saw Mahela Jayawardene (who scored 374) and Kumar Sangakkara (287) share a world record partnership of 624, and the second was lost by just one wicket while took Muttiah Muralitharan took 22 wickets in the series.