Matheesha Pathirana's starring role for CSK

by Nick Brookes

I want to talk about strike rate. 

If the very words have got you yawning, then hold up. Gimme a second. Hear me out. 

I promise I’m not banging on about the metric cricket bros can’t stop fawning over – the one that KL thinks is ‘overrated’ and that Virat wishes was never invented.

I’m talking about the other strike rate – the lesser discussed stat, which reveals how often a bowler takes a wicket. Take a look at these numbers for bowlers across their IPL careers: 

Lasith Malinga: 16.63

Jasprit Bumrah: 18.55

Rashid Khan: 19.29

Matheesha Pathirana: 13.26

Now, you might think I’m cherry-picking – specifically choosing big-name bowlers who’ve got lower strike rates than you’d expect. I’m not. 

Try this one out for size: 

No one who sits above Pathirana in the IPL strike-rate charts has as many wickets as his 34. 

In fact, no one above him in the list has 30 IPL wickets. 

If we lower the bar to 20, two names emerge: Sohail Tanvir, the Pakistani left-armer whose 22 wickets all came in 2008; and Lungi Ngidi, who’s taken 25 across 14 games, but has struggled to consistently hold down a place in an IPL side. 

So, Pathirana is taking wickets at a borderline unprecedented lick. You could argue no IPL regular has ever been such a consistent wicket-taking threat. 

Yet, perhaps more impressive than the raw strike-rate numbers is Pathirana’s palpable growth. Take a look at his strike rate by season: 

2022: 20.50 

2023: 14.63

2024: 10.15

If we implement a ten-wicket cut-off, Pathirana’s 10.15 is the lowest strike rate in IPL 2024. No one who sits above him has bowled more than eight overs. 

Since 2019, only 7 bowlers have managed a full season with 10+ wickets and a sub-11 strike rate. The disappointing news that Pathirana’s IPL campaign is probably over means that he has, in all likelihood, added his name to a very short list. 

But, strike rate only tells us so much. All wickets aren’t created equal, and Pathirana is a guy who’s made his name bowling at the death. So – are we looking at an inflated figure? Is Pathirana simply picking up cheap wickets, against lesser batters trying to slug him out of the park at the back end of innings? 

Not at all. Of the 13 wickets Pathirana’s picked up this season, only 4 have come in the last four overs. Three of those were big wickets – the kind which can impact the outcomes of games. Against Delhi, he dislodged a well-set Pant with the penultimate ball of the 19th. Against LSG, he looked to have shifted the momentum of the chase when he got rid of Nicholas Pooran. And against Mumbai, he had Romario Shepherd clean bowled to ward off a late-overs charge. His other death-overs wicket is KL Rahul. Looking through the list of his victims, there isn’t a tailender in sight. 

In fact, the batters who Pathirana has tombstoned this year reads like an IPL glamour list: Sai Sudharsan, Mitchell Marsh, Tristan Stubbs*, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav*, Tilak Varma, Romario Shepherd*, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen. Not many cheap wickets there. 

Three of those (starred) were done inside two balls. Five were clean bowled. As Pathirana spends time sat on the sidelines, he’s slipping down the purple cap leaderboard. At the time of writing, he’s fallen to ninth – but the eight bowlers above him have all bowled considerably more than his 22 overs. Bumrah has taken 17 wickets in 43, Chakaravarthy 16 in 40. Chahal has taken the same number as Pathirana but bowled 16 more overs, Cummins has taken one less while bowling 18 more. Pathirana’s wicket-taking this year has been special. 

Of course, Pathirana’s bowling is about so much more than numbers. Watching him splatter stumps is electrifying. For me, few moments have matched the thrill of him castling Marsh and Stubbs off back-to-back balls. Ian Bishop agreed. As he wrote on Twitter: 

“I don’t jump out of my seat very often during commentary; but those two Yorkers by Matheesha Pathirana to Marsh and Stubbs were of the highest and most spectacular class.”

Aiden Markram was on the receiving end of another searing yorker – clocking in at 147kph. And even when he doesn’t nail his yorker, his pace and unorthodoxy make him a nightmare for batters. Romario Shepherd was undone with a length ball (4:03) – fired down at 149.3kph, it seemed to skid on and gather pace off the wicket. Not easy to play. 

Even when players get bat on ball, Pathirana’s low-arm action makes it tough to get under him and clear the ropes. The best example of this is Klaasen’s wicket (8:10): for most bowlers, a low full toss would be a kiss of death; yet here, he couldn’t make decent contact. In a season where the balance between bat and ball has been wrenched out of kilter, Pathirana has conceded just 5 sixes. 

But wickets and strike rate aren’t the be-all and end-all. It’s always been clear that Pathirana is a wicket-taker, a walking highlight reel who produces deliveries not many bowlers can match. 

Yet, you could argue that what comes between those moments is the most important aspect of his bowling. For Pathirana to be truly valuable, he has to be consistent. 

Leading into the tournament, I heard pundits describe him as ‘high variance’ – essentially, the consensus was that he’s the kind of bowler who’s great when he gets it right, yet prone to moments where it all goes wrong. 

In a sense, that theory’s held true – though I’d argue he’s proven far more boom than bust. Pathirana’s bowled 22 overs in the IPL: six of those have gone for 10 or more, while 10 have gone for 6 or less. That’s outstanding for a guy who bowls at the death, and a testament to his fast-improving skills. Equally, it’s a reflection of the fact that he can do more than bowl stump-shattering yorkers. 

After a disappointing 50-over World Cup, Pathirana went away and put on a yard of pace: since the start of 2024, he has regularly breached 150kph. That’s a mark not too many bowlers hit: the pace itself scares, but it also gives Pathirana more change-ups – the balls around 140kph now seem like slower ones, and then there are those he sends down in the 120s. To my eye, he seems to be getting more curve and dip; he’s using the wide yorker well and mixing his lengths nicely. Against LSG, he bowled beautifully despite a thick covering of dew; against MI, Hardik described him as ‘the difference’ between the two sides. 

Clearly, he’s becoming a more complete, reliable bowler – capable of executing plans; growing more adept at handling pressure situations. 

His economy rate for the season is 7.68 – 10th in the league if we exclude bowlers who’ve sent down less than 10 overs. Only three seamers are above him in the list: Bumrah, Mayank Yadav and Sandeep Sharma. That’s outstanding, especially tied to his strike rate – and the fact he usually bowls two of the last four overs. 

Compare his returns to a whole host of high-profile, higher-paid bowlers: Starc has gone at 11.37, Bhuvi at 10.18, Rabada at 8.85. It’s a small sample size, but Pathirana is right up there with the most impactful bowlers in the league: a league that prides itself on showcasing the best in the world. 

Let’s go back to the numbers: 

Clearly, these stats mark Pathirana out as unique. No other bowler in the league has claimed 10+ wickets with a strike rate under 11 and an economy under 8. Sandeep Sharma and Mayank Yadav get closest; no one else is in the same ballpark. 

Selected bowlers 2024 numbers:

The above table – showing the cream of the IPL – gives a sense of how well Pathirana has been bowling. Bumrah and Narine have a better economy but a far inferior strike rate; Dre Russ gets closer in terms of wickets per ball but has leaked a lot more runs. Pathirana has taken wickets at almost three times the rate of Rashid Khan, and been stingier than the star spinner too. 

So – let’s broaden it out. How many players across IPL history have hit the 10+ wickets, >11 SR and >8 economy mark across the course of a season? 

That’s right. Just the two Australians – both of whom only featured in a handful of games. 

Sadly, Pathirana’s season looks to be over after six games too. Of course, it would be more impressive to maintain such low strike and economy rates over a 14-game season – yet this has nonetheless been a historic campaign for Sri Lanka’s young slinger. CSK will surely look to retain him at next year’s mega auction – and build their attack around him for years to come. He’ll enter next year’s IPL with a lot more hype behind him. It’s taken time, but the world is waking up to the rare talents of Matheesha Pathirana. 

Clearly, Pathirana’s come a long way since limping out of the World Cup. At 21, he’s quietly announced himself as one of the best death bowlers in the world; and arguably, one of the most impactful bowlers in T20 cricket. 

Right now, the biggest issue would seem to be keeping him on the park. He missed CSK’s opening game with a hamstring problem, and has limped out of the tournament with a recurrence of the issue. The slinging action will undoubtedly put stress on his body; in all likelihood, he’ll need to build strength if he wants to keep the niggles at bay. 

But how exciting is Pathirana’s upside? Think of how much he’s grown in the past few months – and how much more room he might have to grow. Can he add another yard of pace? Develop more variations? Become a powerplay option? Get more reliable? He isn’t top of the wides list for IPL 2024, but nor is he a million miles away. I’d expect those to come down as he puts on more muscle. 

It’s easy to forget that Malinga was seen as a red-ball attack dog in his early days, deemed too unpredictable to be regularly released in white-ball cricket. He made his ODI debut in July 2004 – a month prior to his 21st birthday. Between then and the end of 2006, he only played in 23 of Sri Lanka’s 70 ODIs. Matheesha might not hit the lofty heights that Lasith did, but there’s little doubt he’s more developed than Malinga was at his age. 

He’s fast outgrowing the tag of ‘Jr. Malinga’; announcing himself as his own man – The Hill-Country Express. I don’t buy into the theory that he bowls better for CSK; he’s played so few T20s for Sri Lanka – and he’s so young, growing so fast – that I expect him to repeat these exploits in a dark blue shirt. Surely, he’ll be a major factor at the T20 World Cup – and for Sri Lanka, for years to come. I can’t wait to watch.