3 players who won most Player of the Match awards in IPL 2026

The 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) saw some great individual performances from a host of players throughout the season, which eventually warranted them getting the Player of the Match award. On most occasions, these mesmerising displays on the field eventually lead to the player's team securing the win.

In the IPL, the Player of the Match winner gets a prize money of INR 1 lakh, along with a bespoke trophy. During the 2026 season, four players tied for the most Player of the Match accolades, each winning three. However, each player did not play in the same number of matches.

Here are the top three players with the most Player of the Match awards in IPL 2026:

3. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Virat Kohli - 3 in 16 matches

Team India's present and the future both won three Player of the Match awards in 16 matches in the 2026 IPL season. Virat Kohli's honours twice came against the Gujarat Titans, including in the showpiece final in Ahmedabad. The 37-year-old scored an unbeaten 75 off 42 balls to guide the Royal Challengers Bengaluru to their second consecutive title. The former captain also won the award against the Kolkata Knight Riders, where he scored an unbeaten 105 from 60 balls in Raipur to help his side secure a six-wicket win. 

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, on the other hand, not only won three Player of the Match awards but was also named the tournament's Most Valuable Player (MVP), along with the Emerging Player of the Season. The 15-year-old's most important Player of the Match-worthy innings came against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator, where he scored 97 off just 29 balls and was well on course to register the fastest century in IPL history. The left-hander did score a hundred against the same opponent in Jaipur, but did not win the Player of the Match award as the Rajasthan Royals ended up on the losing side.

2. Ishan Kishan - 3 in 15 matches

Despite not ending the season as Sunrisers Hyderabad's (SRH) highest run-scorer, it is safe to say that Ishan Kishan was his side's most consistent batter. The wicketkeeper-batter, who captained SRH during the early stages of the 2026 IPL, secured three Player of the Match awards, one against the Rajasthan Royals and two back-to-back honours against the Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. 

His best outing came against the RR in Jaipur, in the same game in which Sooryavanshi scored a century. Chasing 229 in the second innings, Kishan hit a 31-ball 74, striking at 238.71 to help his side get over the line with nine balls to spare.

1. Sanju Samson - 3 in 14 games

Despite four players winning three Player of the Match awards each, Chennai Super Kings' Sanju Samson did so in the fewest number of matches. Two of Samson's accolades came after he scored centuries against the Delhi Capitals and the Mumbai Indians, thus being the only batter to score two hundreds in the 2026 IPL season. 

Samson registered his highest score against the Capitals, hitting an unbeaten 115 from 56 balls to strike at 205.36. His third Player of the Match award also came against the same opposition, this time at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, where he scored 87 not out to help CSK win the match by eight wickets.