It is uncommon for an IPL team to suddenly discover an international star, but Matheesha Pathirana of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) achieved just that. Pathirana was a young Sri Lankan who had not yet played for his country in international cricket when CSK signed him in the 2022 Indian Premier League as an injured substitute for Adam Milne.
In 2025, Pathirana is regarded as one of the most deadly and in-demand death bowlers in Twenty20 cricket. Because of his excellent CSK rating, he was kept for INR 13 crore before the big auction.
How, therefore, did the franchise suddenly unleash this young superstar?
In a video released by the franchise, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan stated, “It is all due to Lakshmi Narayanan, CSK’s video analyst who is also in charge of talent scouting.”
“He [Lakshmi] was observing Pathirana at the Abu Dhabi T10 competition. After identifying him, he suggested that we sign Pathirana to play net bowling for CSK. We were able to obtain him after initially failing to obtain the Sri Lankan board’s clearance.
Viswanathan claimed that Dhoni was immediately struck by young Matheesha Pathirana talent.
“After observing Pathirana in the nets, MS Dhoni, who had never seen him before, thought he had potential.”
Since then, Pathirana has represented more than a dozen teams in franchise cricket and played 12 ODIs and 19 T20Is for Sri Lanka.
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