Winning a ‘Player of the Series’ award in Cricket is not an easy affair. It demands stronger characters, both mentally and physically, to make a consistent effort for an entire series that can last for a month.
Muttiah Muralitharan, the Sri Lankan legendary cricketer, has won 11 Man of the Series awards in his esteemed Test career, which is the most by any cricketer who played the format.
Here is a list of Muttiah Muralitharan records in all cricketing formats he played.
The Indian master Sachin Tendulkar leads the same list in One Day Internationals with 15 ODI Man of the Series awards to his name.
Among the current list of players, the modern-day Indian spin wizard Ravichandran Ashwin leads the Tests and Virat Kohli list in ODI.
Let’s get into the top 10 list of “Most Player of the Series” awardees in all three formats: Tests, ODIs, & T20Is.
Most Man of the Series won by a Player in Test Cricket
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | MAN OF THE SERIES IN TESTS | MATCHES PLAYED | SERIES PLAYED |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muttiah Muralitharan | Sri Lanka | 11 | 133 | 61 |
| Ravichandran Ashwin | India | 10 | 92 | 37 |
| Jacques Kallis | South Africa | 9 | 166 | 61 |
| Richard Hadlee | Pakistan | 8 | 86 | 33 |
| Imran Khan | Pakistan | 8 | 88 | 28 |
| Shane Warne | Australia | 8 | 145 | 46 |
| Wasim Akram | Pakistan | 7 | 104 | 43 |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies | 7 | 164 | 60 |
| Malcolm Marshall | West Indies | 6 | 81 | 21 |
| Curtly Ambrose | West Indies | 6 | 98 | 27 |
| Steve Waugh | Australia | 6 | 168 | 54 |
Stats Insights
Three legendary West Indian cricketers (Chanderpaul, Marshall, & Ambrose) form the highest entrants from a single country into this list.
Other Indians with 4 or more MoS awards in Test cricket are Virender Sehwag (5), Sachin Tendulkar (4), Kapil Dev (4), Anil Kumble (4), Harbhajan Singh (4), & Rahul Dravid (4).
The Indian captains’ trio – Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, & Mohammed Azharuddin, along with the pace duo – Zaheer khan and Ishant Sharma, have 3 MoS each in their long-format career.
Among the current cricketers, James Anderson, Yasir Shah, and Shakib Al Hasan have 5 MoS to their names, whereas Steve Smith and David Warner have four so far.
Most Man of the Series in ODI Cricket
| PLAYERS | COUNTRY | MAN OF THE SERIES IN ODI | MATCHES PLAYED | SERIES PLAYED |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 15 | 463 | 108 |
| Sanath Jayasuriya | Sri Lanka | 11 | 445 | 111 |
| Virat Kohli | India | 10 | 296 | 73 |
| Shaun Pollock | South Africa | 9 | 303 | 60 |
| Chris Gayle | West Indies | 8 | 301 | 71 |
| Viv Richards | West Indies | 7 | 187 | 40 |
| Hashim Amla | South Africa | 7 | 181 | 49 |
| Shakib Al Hasan | Bangladesh | 7 | 247 | 73 |
| Yuvraj Singh | India | 7 | 304 | 71 |
| Sourav Ganguly | India | 7 | 311 | 75 |
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 7 | 375 | 77 |
| MS Dhoni | India | 7 | 350 | 80 |
Stats Insights
India’s domination in the ODI format is so apparent from the above chart where we have 5 Indians out of 11 male players who have won more than 7 Player of the Series awards in ODI cricket.
Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli are among the top 3 players on the list, with the latter climbing up the chart at an insane rate. Look at the list of Virat Kohli centuries here to understand how good he has been in every ODI series he’s been part of.
Still, the hero of this chart, for me, would be the West Indian legendary striker Vivian Richards, who has won 7 of the PoS awards in just the 40 ODI series he’s been part of. That’s one almost in every 6 series he played in his time. With the legendary list of West Indian players during Richards’ time, this is an insane number. Read here this one record of Sir Vivian Richard to understand what kind of ODI monster he had been in his times.
Except for Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle, who’s not playing the format nowadays, there’s no current players’ name in this toppers list.
Shakib Al Hasan has 6, followed by Tamim Iqbal, Rohit Sharma, Kane Williamson, & Quinton de Kock have five each to their names. Babar Azam is climbing up faster, too (almost the same as Virat) with 3 Player of the Series performance in just 21 ODI series he’s been part of. You can read here the comparison of Babar Azam vs Virat Kohli.
Most Man of the Series in T20 Internationals
| PLAYER | COUNTRY | MAN OF THE SERIES IN T20I | SERIES PLAYED |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | India | 7 | 46 |
| Suryakumar Yadav | India | 5 | 23 |
| Wanindu Hasaranga | Sri Lanka | 5 | 24 |
| Babar Azam | Pakistan | 5 | 37 |
| David Warner | Australia | 5 | 42 |
| Shakib Al Hasan | Bangladesh | 5 | 45 |
| Tim Seifert | New Zealand | 4 | 20 |
| Mohammad Rizwan | Pakistan | 4 | 34 |
| Glenn Maxwell | Australia | 4 | 40 |
| Mohammad Hafeez | Pakistan | 4 | 48 |
| Virandeep Singh | Malaysia | 3 | 23 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | India | 3 | 24 |
| Glenn Phillips | New Zealand | 3 | 26 |
| Reeza Hendricks | South Africa | 3 | 29 |
| Rashid Khan | Afghanistan | 3 | 29 |
| Quinton de Kock | South Africa | 3 | 32 |
| Hardik Pandya | India | 3 | 33 |
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | India | 3 | 33 |
| Mohammad Nabi | Afghanistan | 3 | 41 |
| Shahid Afridi | Pakistan | 3 | 42 |
| Jos Buttler | England | 3 | 47 |
| Shoaib Malik | Pakistan | 3 | 47 |
| David Miller | South Africa | 3 | 48 |
Stats Insights
Virat Kohli has been phenomenal in the shortest format of the game as his consistency has been on a different level when compared with his compatriots.
He is the only player to have 50+ batting average in all three formats of the game.
Babar Azam is once again leveling the supremacy of Virat in his early career in the shortest format too. Let’s wait and see whether he will continue his winning run in the format.
Most Man of the Series won by a Player in all formats combined
| PLAYERS | COUNTRY | MAN OF THE SERIES (ALL FORMATS) | SERIES PLAYED | BEST FORMAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sachin Tendulkar | India | 20 | 183 | ODI (15) |
| Virat Kohli | India | 19 | 147 | ODI (9) |
| Shakib Al Hasan | Bangladesh | 16 | 145 | ODI (7) |
| Jacques Kallis | South Africa | 15 | 148 | TEST (9) |
| Sanath Jayasuriya | Sri Lanka | 13 | 176 | ODI (11) |
| Chris Gayle | West Indies | 12 | 141 | ODI (8) |
| Shaun Pollock | South Africa | 11 | 107 | ODI (9) |
| David Warner | Australia | 11 | 115 | TEST (4) |
| Shivnarine Chanderpaul | West Indies | 11 | 136 | TEST (7) |
| Ricky Ponting | Australia | 11 | 147 | ODI (7) |
Stats Insights
Virat, Gayle, and Shakib are the three current players in this list of the top 10s.
Virat is expected to go past Sachin to top the chart soon as he is just behind by 2 numbers of PoS. Still, there are various records of Sachin that even Virat will find it tougher to beat.
