India vs Sri Lanka Man of the Series today: Who was awarded Man of the Series in IND vs SL Test series?

India vs Sri Lanka Man of the Series: The Indian wicket-keeper batter has won his maiden series award in Test cricket.

India have continued their winning spree by winning all their five matches across against Sri Lanka. A 3-0 T20I series whitewash has been followed by a 2-0 Test series whitewash after the hosts beat Sri Lanka by 238 runs to win the second Test in Bengaluru.

In what was India’s fourth pink-ball Test, they have now won three (all at home) and lost one. The development also means that India have won their 100% points of the ongoing second ICC World Test Championship.

Chasing a formidable 447-run target, Sri Lanka managed to evade embarrassment as captain Dimuth Karunaratne (107) and batter Kusal Mendis (54) tried their best to counter an in-form Indian bowling unit. However, lack of support from other batters resulted in Sri Lanka scoring 208/10 in 59.3 overs.

With bowling figures of 19.3-3-55-4, all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin was the pick of the Indian bowlers on Day 3 today. While fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah picked three wickets, all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel picked two and one wicket respectively.

India vs Sri Lanka Man of the Series

There were multiple contenders for the Man of the Series award after a series where the hosts have dominated across divisions. Having said that, wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant was adjudged the Man of the Series for the first time in his Test career.

Third-highest run-scorer in the two-match series behind Ravindra Jadeja (201) and Shreyas Iyer (186), Pant was handed the award for contributing behind the wickets as well. In three innings of this series, Pant’s 185 runs have come at an average and strike rate of 61.66 and 120.12 respectively including a couple of half-centuries.

Having said that, with Jadeja also picking 10 wickets in the series, one feels he deserved the award more than Pant on this particular occasion.

“I think both (batting and wicket-keeping), you need to keep evolving, I’ve made mistakes in the past and want to keep improving. It’s not in my mindset, the wicket was difficult to play, so I thought I will look for quick runs. I’ll do whatever the team management want me to do [batting position],” Pant told Star Sports during the post-match presentation ceremony at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.