Dinusha beats Hasan, Robinson to ICC monthly award

Sri Lanka's Sonal Dinusha has been named the ICC Men's Player of the month for 2026 August, beating Bangladesh pacer Hasan Mahmud and England fast bowler Ollie Robinson to the award.

The 25-year-old left-handed batter earned the honour after an outstanding performance in Sri Lanka’s ICC World Test Championship series against India. Having played only three Tests before the series, Dinusha emerged as the leading run-scorer with 420 runs in two matches at an impressive average of 140.

He scored 100 and 84 in the first Test at Galle before producing centuries in both innings of the second Test in Colombo. His knocks of 103 and an unbeaten 133 helped Sri Lanka secure a memorable draw after being forced to follow on. Dinusha became only the third batter in Test history to score twin centuries in a follow-on match.

Bangladesh’s Hasan Mahmud was nominated following his key role in the Tigers’ historic Test win in Australia. The right-arm pacer claimed nine wickets at an average of 19.78 in August, including match figures of 9-111 in Darwin. He took 6-55 in the first innings and added 3-56 in the second to guide Bangladesh to a nine-wicket victory.

Ollie Robinson was also in contention after an impressive home series against Pakistan. The 32-year-old England pacer finished the three-match series with 21 wickets as his side completed a 3-0 clean sweep. He was named Player of the Match in the first two Tests after returning match figures of 8-80 and 8-35 respectively. In the third Test, Robinson added another five wickets, taking 3-15 in the first innings and 2-54 in the second to cap a dominant series with the ball.