Why Sonal Dinusha Didn't Win Player of the Series in SL vs IND Test Series Despite 3 Centuries?

The SL vs IND Test series 2026 has come to an end at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo, with the Sri Lankan cricket team putting all their sweat into ending the 2nd Test in a Draw even after being enforced the follow-on by India. Overall, this series has been exceptional across the departments of the game, testing the patience of players from both teams as well.

Several players did well in this series, like Devdutt Padikkal, Manav Suthar, and even Sonal Dinusha. The credit for Sri Lanka making a draw in the 2nd Test clearly goes to Sonal Dinusha, who outplayed everyone by scoring a century in both innings, continuing his red-hot form. Fans expected that Sonal Dinusha Player of the Series announcement would come up, but another player was announced as the SL vs IND Test Series Player of the Series. Let's find out the reason behind this.

Why Sonal Dinusha Did Not Win Player of the Series?

Sonal Dinusha, a bowling all-rounder, has been a standout player in this series from the warm-up match to the last match of the series. He has scored a total of 420 runs in four innings, averaging 140, including 3 centuries. However, even after the standout performance, Sonal didn't win the player of the series award, as Devdutt Padikkal got his hands on this award.

The reason behind the selection of Padikkal as player of the series could be that India won the series by 1-0, and the winner of this award should be from the winning team. However, instead of the Player of the Series, Sonal won the Player of the Match award for scoring 103 in the 1st innings and 133* in the 2nd innings.

Few Records Under Sonal's Name

Sonal has shown glimpses of becoming one of the best Test batsmen in the world, and through his performance, he helped Sri Lanka save the test for the fourth time in their history after being asked to follow on. Sonal became the third batter in the history of Test cricket to score a century in each innings, where second century coming while following on.

He has also become the fifth batter to score twin centuries from No.6 or lower in a Test match. Along with this, he became the second batter, after Kamindu Mendis, with the most runs after the first five Tests for Sri Lanka. The main record to note is that he has scored the most runs (173 runs) while playing the sweep shot against spin in a Test series, and that too with no dismissal.