The intriguing rise of Pathirana

Anura Pathirana didn’t want his youngest child to leave the quaint little Harispathuwa in Kandy and move to Colombo even though the person suggesting he let his son do so was a Sri Lankan legend who went by the name Chaminda Vaas. 

Three years since, Anura wouldn’t dare hold Matheesha back, not necessarily for the 20-year-old’s desire to experience the world, but because Sri Lankan cricket needs the newest ‘slinger’ in town. And given what the sport means to this country, it’s safe to say that the nation, which is still reeling in the aftermath of a debilitating economic crisis, needs him just as badly. 

It’s a peculiar sentiment given his age and the sample size of his craft. Still, there’s something about him that is inescapably attractive, and it has nothing to do with his cherubic appeal or that he comes from a family so relatable.  

It’s possibly his humility which translates to the clasping of the hands after every wicket he picks up or his wide-eyed trance when he’s being spoken to by the players. Or, it could simply be that he’s very good at what he does. 

Why wouldn’t that level of skill veiled by an uncanny ease be attractive?

That’s perhaps the biggest difference between his predecessor and him. 

Lasith Malinga had that bad boy image to him which made his bowling seem more threatening than it already was. Matheesha, on the other hand, is a baby-faced assassin.

That aside, they are more alike than different, at least their actions are, but Matheesha's coach Bilal Fassy maintains that his ward didn’t model his action on the Sri Lankan legend. 

“A lot of people have this misconception because their actions are similar, and that only grows because Malinga did train Matheesha for a while, but that’s just how he bowls. He came to me with that action. We had to tweak it a bit, considering the possibility of injuries with that action, but those are just minor tweaks,” says Fassy. 

“He’s just naturally quick,” he adds. 

We’ll get to why he’s as quick a little later because the story of how he became the face of Sri Lanka’s pace unit is a tad more intriguing. 

After signing up for Trinity College in Kandy, Matheesha picked up five for 11 in his first game for the famous institution. An action like that - or the other unique ones that have come out of Sri Lanka - may not be a new phenomenon but the pace and the accuracy for someone so young inspired someone to record the proceedings of that game against St Servatius.

As luck would have it, the video traversed the seas and eventually made it to MS Dhoni’s phone. The Chennai Super Kings skipper would then personally write, inviting the youngster to come as a ‘nets’ bowler for the Indian Premier League side. 

What followed was as serendipitous as it was beautiful. The very fact that Chennai accepted Matheesha and his countryman Maheesh Theekshana was impressive enough, but that they would end up becoming Dhoni’s go-to bowlers en route Super Kings’ title run was unprecedented. Pertinently, Matheesha picked hip 19 wickets, most of which came at the death, in 12 games.  

And you could see that Dhoni wasn’t about to let the world get inside the head of his latest pupil, often the former Indian skipper would be seen with an arm over the young man’s shoulders, explaining who-knows-what at length. Matheesha, mostly, listened without blinking. 

“He has worked very hard, and he absorbs information very well. He will continue to develop, and it won’t be long before he has that new ball in his hand,” Chris Silverwood, the Sri Lankan coach, had said earlier. 

Since that fateful IPL, Matheesha was fast-tracked into the Sri Lankan side and he has thereafter played five ODIs and a T20I. His latest exploits saw him pick up four for 32 against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup. 

As for why he is quick: It’s partly that rare flexion his elbows allow (which could be because he had played a fair bit of baseball in school), and the abrupt pause upon landing, which turns him into a sling. 

What Malinga noted in an earlier interview was that while Matheesha’s wrists don’t allow for much sideways swing, they grant an eery level of dip. Then there’s the angle of release, which Malinga revealed, is much lower than his own. “I somehow want to make this guy even better than me,” Malinga had said in the same interaction. 

Fassy didn’t want to look that far ahead. “Let him play for a while and then we can talk about how good he is. He is good, no doubt, but you can’t be comparing him to the Sri Lankan greats,” he says. 

Perhaps Matheesha will go on to replicate what Malinga had done for Sri Lanka throughout his illustrious career. Or, perhaps, he won’t do any of that. Or, perhaps, he will do better. 

None of that matters as of now for it’s big enough that Anura has let his son go beyond Kandy, and that his boy puts a smile on the faces of millions with his gift.