Sonal Dinusha Joins Kumar Sangakkara and Andy Flower After Colombo Heroics
Sonal Dinusha made Test cricket history on August 27, 2026, when he became only the fifth batsman to score fifty or more runs in each of his first four Test innings against India, doing so on Day 5 of the second Test in Colombo.
Sonal Dinusha scored 100 and 84 in the first Test before adding 103 in the opening innings of the second. On the final day at Colombo, he increased his overnight total of 7 not out to 55 not out by the end of the first session, completing a sequence that now stretches across every innings of the two-Test series.
Sri Lanka began Day 5 at 229 for 6, with Sonal Dinusha and his overnight partner Nuwantha on 3 not out, leading by just 16 runs. By the end of the first session, the pair had scored significantly, taking the total to 329 for 6 and increasing the lead to 116 runs, with Nuwantha unbeaten at 46.
Who are the other four hitters who have scored 50 or more in each of their first four Test innings against India?
The four batsmen who accomplished this feat before Sonal Dinusha include some of the most illustrious names from nearly nine decades of Test cricket. Douglas Jardine of England was the first, doing so from 1932 to 1934. Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott, both from the West Indies, followed in 1948. Ken Barrington from England completed the group in 1959.
The fact that no batter achieved it between Barrington in 1959 and Dinusha in 2026 emphasises its uniqueness. Sonal Dinusha fifty-plus production across four successive innings against India in two separate Tests puts him in company with players from the amateur era to the present game.
How does Sonal Dinusha run compare to what Sangakkara and Flower achieved in a two-match series?
The broader comparison with Kumar Sangakkara and Andy Flower is between batters who have scored fifty or more runs in each innings of a two-Test series. Flower scored 183 not out, 70, 55, and 232 not out during Zimbabwe’s 2000 tour of India.
Sangakkara’s similar performance is reported over two separate series, one against Bangladesh at home in 2013 and the other in England in 2014, rather than a single two-match series.
The particular classification utilised in the headline comparison necessitates editorial confirmation before publication. Dimuth Karunaratne is also credited for scoring more than fifty runs in all four innings of a home series against South Africa in 2018.
