Dinusha has made 100, 84 and 103 against India, and Sri Lanka are following on anyway
Three innings against India, three scores of 80 or more, and a place on a list that already had Sobers and Weekes on it. Sri Lanka’s problem is what happens at the other end.
Aug 26, 2026
Sri Lanka’s last two wickets lasted six overs of the fourth morning at the Sinhalese Sports Club, and a debutant spinner took both. The one worth stopping over was the last: Sonal Dinusha, on 103, drawn forward by a ball Saransh Jain tossed up outside off, edging to KL Rahul at slip. Sri Lanka were all out for 290, still 213 behind, and India sent them straight back in.
Dinusha top-scored in that innings, as he had top-scored in Sri Lanka’s first innings at Galle nine days earlier. Both times his side lost ground anyway. What he has done in between is put a 25-year-old picked as a bowling all-rounder into a list with Garfield Sobers and Everton Weekes.
Seven men had done it before
Dinusha had never faced India in a Test before this month. At Galle he made 100 in the first innings and 84 in the second. At the SSC he made 103. Hundreds in each of his first two Tests against India put him eighth on a list that had not moved since 2009.
The other seven are Weekes in 1948, Sobers in 1958, Zaheer Abbas in 1978, Duleep Mendis in 1982, Robin Smith in 1990, Gary Kirsten in 1996 and Jesse Ryder in 2009. Mendis is the only other Sri Lankan on it, which tells you how long the wait has been.
The other sequence is rarer. Dinusha has 287 runs from three innings against India and the lowest of them is 84. Only Weekes and Abbas had opened against India with three scores of 80 or more, and Abbas did it 48 years ago.
He was picked to bowl
Dinusha was born in Colombo in December 2000 and came into the Test side in June 2025 against Bangladesh, capped as a slow left-arm orthodox bowler who could bat. Colombo is his fifth Test. The first-class record behind the selection reads 133 wickets at 28 and a best of 8 for 67, alongside 12 hundreds and a batting average in the mid-forties. He captains Colombo Cricket Club.
The bowling has brought him little in this series. The batting has been a different matter. At Galle he walked in with Sri Lanka 90 for 5 and put on 146 for the sixth wicket with Niroshan Dickwella. At the SSC he was 85 not out on Tuesday evening when rain ended the third day early, with two wickets left and 39 runs still needed to make India bat again, and he came back on Wednesday and turned it into a hundred off 162 balls with eight fours and three sixes.
Good company, familiar result
Back-to-back hundreds against India is not unheard of for a Sri Lankan. Aravinda de Silva made three in a row in 1997, Kumar Sangakkara three across 2009 and 2010. Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Tharanga Paranavitana and Angelo Mathews all managed two. Dinusha is the first to join them since Mathews in 2015.
What none of it has bought Sri Lanka is a result. India won at Galle by 165 runs. In Colombo they declared on 503 for 9, Devdutt Padikkal making 117 and Dhruv Jurel an unbeaten 115, then bowled Sri Lanka out for 290 despite Dinusha and an 80 from Pasindu Sooriyabandara in only his second Test. The follow-on was enforced with a day and a half left to play.
Sri Lanka have found a batter. They have not found a way to bat around him.