Dasun Shanaka was batting during a practice session in Pallekele in the middle of 2019 when an unplayable yorker dislodged his stumps. The former T20I captain of Sri Lanka was drawn to a slender, reserved 16-year-old who was at the other end of the nets. Chamila Gamage, the fast-bowling coach for Sri Lanka’s U19 team, also saw what appeared to be Lasith Malinga’s second coming at this time. At first glance, Matheesha Pathirana’s move was even more difficult to interpret because it concluded significantly lower than the initial slinger from the nation.
A provincial coach invited Gamage to Pallekele so he could “take a look at a special bowler.” By the end of the session, Shanaka had given Gamage his shoes and was urging him to take excellent care of Pathirana.
Between then and now, Pathirana has experienced several leaps of faith in her life. Gamage chose the first one, sending the kid to train with him and his Under-19 team in Colombo, where he sharpened the edges of his game. For the 17-year-old, who had hardly played on grass wickets or with a white ball before then, there was a lot of learning and unlearning to be done.
“I asked him to bowl a lot with the new ball and worked with him on his run-up and run-up pace. He was unaccustomed to playing turf cricket and bowling with a fresh white ball. His sole experience was in hitting wickets, so I faced a significant obstacle there. Gamage tells Cricket sport, “We gave him a lot of practice matches because he was only 17 and hadn’t played much.”
Only twice, prior to training with Gamage in Colombo during the U19 World Cup year (2020), has Pathirana bowled with the white ball. However, the unfamiliarity had no bearing on the World Cup selection process. “I recall that at that time, the selectors and board president Shammi Silva urged him, telling me ‘take him to South Africa, no problem.'” Take him and provide him some national team experience. It was a fruitful period in his career,” Gamage remarked.
Although he didn’t exactly light up the tournament, he had two very memorable moments. First, in Sri Lanka’s opening encounter, Yashasvi Jaiswal hit an innocent wide that the speed gun misinterpreted as a delivery bowled at 175 mph. Next, he hit a series of thunderbolts to his colleagues in the nets that exceeded 140 mph and went viral. Over the course of the following 12 to 18 months, U19 tours were conducted to put Pathirana through her paces in various situations throughout the world. It improved his grip and grasp of the white ball, leading to a pivotal moment in his career against Pakistan in the 2021 U19 Asia Cup semifinal.
The ball didn’t come to Pathirana until the 45th over since Sri Lanka had so many bowling options. However, when Pakistan needed to win with 45, he bowled three of the final five overs for eight runs.
“I recall that spell clearly. He bowled some excellent yorkers and did so quite quickly. Among his most remarkable U19 spells, according to Gamage. On that day, I told Matheesha, ‘You’ll bowl 150 (kmph) in the next two years,’ and he chuckled. In an IPL match this year, he bowled at 151 kmph, and he emailed me pictures and videos.”
Pathirana spent additional time honing his white-ball abilities prior to joining the CSK lineup in 2022 to replace Adam Milne. “Myself and Anusha Samaranayake, the two bowling coaches, asked him to bowl to the demands of the game now before he went to the IPL. You are aware that the 6–8 m lengths don’t always work for skilled bowlers. We constantly asked him to adjust the lengths and tempo,” Gamage remarked.
He could always bowl at a fast rate, but he also had another weapon in his arsenal: the ability to bowl at a far slower pace on his slower balls. “He was bowling at 130, which is a regular pace for another bowler, but he was bowling slower ones. His top speed was 150 kmph, and his slower speed was between 130 and 135 kmph. However, I advised him to slow down even further. It will be quite challenging to bowl at 115–120 kmph with his movement.”
Pathirana was also not the best at bowling bouncers because of the unconventional motion, but he could unleash yorkers whenever he wanted. However, even that had numerous errors in the lines. Getting the tyro to always aim his yorkers toward the fourth stump was Gamage’s efficient answer. To help Pathirana develop his muscle memory to angle the yorkers in the proper direction, there was always one beyond the off-stump during net sessions.
Pathirana benefited by entering the intense environment of the Indian Premier League with what was arguably the least turbulent franchise. Additionally, it suited him that CSK had a lackluster season in 2022, which gave MS Dhoni the opportunity to throw the pacer a few games when there was nothing left to play for, much as they had done in 2020 with their current captain, Ruturaj Gaikwad. Thus, CSK provided Pathirana with the ideal environment to advance his technical proficiency in mental conditioning.
“Something big has happened in Matheesha’s life because of the IPL, because of that man (Dhoni),” Gamage stated. “Matheesha has moments of panic. He overthinks things sometimes. He was different two years ago,” Gamage believes.”Mateesha informed me last year that Dhoni frequently discusses breathing. Before you bowl, always take a breath. Inhale. And have a peek at me after the ball. He’s now performing these actions correctly. He used to rush a lot and get hammered, I remember. Now that he has been exposed, it is helping him improve.”
At 20 years and 161 days, Pathirana became the youngest overseas player to win an IPL title last season by taking 19 wickets. This season, he has carried over much of the same form into the competition; among pacers who have played at least five matches, only Trent Boult (7.46) and Jasprit Bumrah (6.37) had higher economy rates than his 7.60. Similar to Bumrah, Pathirana has distinguished himself this season, even in his team’s losses.
Sometimes pacers have had to stifle their desire to fire the speed gun in order to control accuracy using line and length. But not Pathirana, who still employs his principal skill set with great skill. Even though he bowled a delivery this season that was recorded at 151 kmph, Gamage hasn’t let that deter him from making another bold prediction that, like his previous one, might come true: “I will tell you today, he will bowl the fastest ball in the world in the next two years.”
