Domestically he is a first-class cricketer who plays for Colombo Cricket Club. He took the most wickets in the 2015–16 Premier League Tournament, with a total of 52 dismissals from 10 matches and 18 innings.

In March 2018, he was named in Colombo's squad for the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. The following month, he was also named in Colombo's squad for the 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament. He was the leading wicket-taker for Colombo in the tournament, with twelve dismissals in five matches.

In August 2018, he was named in Dambulla's squad the 2018 SLC T20 League.

In July 2016 he was named in Sri Lanka's Test squad for their series against Australia. On 26 July 2016 he made his Test debut for Sri Lanka against Australia.

In the first innings, Sandakan took his first Test wicket by bowling Mitchell Marsh. He took 4 for 58 runs in the first innings and 3 for 49 in the second innings. His match figures of 7 for 107 were the best by a chinaman bowler on Test debut. Sri Lanka won the match by 106 runs giving them only their second win against Australia in 27 matches.

He made his One Day International debut for Sri Lanka against Australia on 21 August 2016. He took his first ODI wicket by caught Matthew Wade in his first over.

In January 2017 he was named in Sri Lanka's Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for their series against South Africa. He made his T20I debut for Sri Lanka against South Africa on 22 January 2017,^[13] taking a wicket with his first delivery. He was the first Sri Lankan to achieve this feat.^[14]

On 2 July 2017, Sandakan was brought into the second ODI match against Zimbabwe. Sandakan took four wickets in the match, which Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets. He was adjudged his first man of the match award for bowling performance.^[15]

He took his first five-wicket haul on day two of the third Test against India at Pallekele International Stadium. He became the first chinaman bowler for Sri Lanka to take a five-wicket haul in a Test innings.^[16] His figures did not held Sri Lanka to win the match due to poor batting performances in both innings. India won the match by an innings and 171 runs, and whitewashed Sri Lanka for the first time in tests as well.^[17]

Sandakan played third Test against India at Delhi. Though he took four wickets in the first innings, he conceded more than 100 runs to the opposition.^[18] With few interruptions in the test due to air pollution, match was ended quiet early in first two days.^[19] While batting, Sandakan helped skipper Dinesh Chandimal to reach his century to 150 by hanging at the other end as the final wicket.

In May 2018, he was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018–19 season.^[20][21]

Sandakan began playing cricke