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Matheesha Pathirana: (Image Source: BCCI/IPL)
Chennai speedster, Adam Milne, who was recovering from a hamstring injury that he sustained during the Chennai's first match, has now been ruled out of the Indian T20 League 2022. His campaign has come to a close and the franchise has also announced his replacement for the remainder of the tournament.
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Sri Lanka’s rising pace-sensation, Matheesa Pathirana has been signed in as a replacement for the Kiwi pacer.
Who is Matheesa, Adam Milne's replacement?
For the unversed, Matheesa Pathirana is a Sri Lankan young seamer who represented the Island nation in the 2020 and 2022 editions of the Under-19 World Cup. He holds a slinging bowling action that is similar to Sri Lankan legend Lasith Malinga.
Pathirana first grabbed headlines when he bowled a 175 kmph thunderbolt to Yashasvi Jaiswal in a match during the 2020 Under-19 World Cup. With that delivery, he even surpassed Shoaib Akhtar’s fastest delivery of 163.3 kmph bowled in the 2003 World Cup. However, it was later found that the speed was record incorrectly due to technical glitch in the speed gun.
Meanwhile, Matheesa was also part of Chennai’s camp in the 2021 edition of the Indian T20 League. He was added to the team as a reserve player. The 19-year-old cricketer, however, is still young and doesn’t possess a lot of cricketing experience under his belt.
Till now, he has only played 1 List A and 2 T20 matches in his career, going wicketless in the List A game and accounting for two wickets in the T20s. Pathirana also played 16 Youth ODIs for Sri Lanka from 2020 to 2022, picking 17 wickets, averaging 24.52 at an economy rate of 5.35. It will be interesting to see if he can make his debut for Chennai this year. Due to the absence of Deepak Chahar, Chennai’s bowling unit is looking a lot weaker this year. The likes of Chris Jordan and Dwayne Pretorius have failed to make a mark.
Chennai are currently languishing at the second last spot in the points table, having managed to secure only one win out of 6 matches. The franchise is slated to play its next game against Mumbai on Thursday at Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai.