Head coach of Chennai Super Kings Stephen Fleming has attributed the decline of Sri Lanka’s talented pacer Matheesha Pathirana at this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) to the change in his bowling action.
Chennai Super Kings’ woes in the IPL 2025 have extended to all of their departments. Their batting has failed to make a mark, their fielding has been average and their bowlers have been ineffective to say the least.
Pacer Matheesha Pathirana has been a liability this season for the five-time champions, topping the charts for most wides alongside Lucknow Super Giants’ Shardul Thakur and Rajasthan Royals’ Tushar Deshpande with 21 bowled in this edition.
In Friday’s clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Chepauk, Pathirana bowled five wides and missed the yorker multiple times which resulted in a juicy full-toss for the opposition batters.
The performances in the current season were a far cry from the youngster’s 13-wicket haul last season which came in just six matches. His slinging action and ability to land the yorker got CSK to retain him for a massive amount of INR 13 crore.
Friday’s failure with the ball resulted in CSK succumbing to yet another defeat, this time by five wickets on a surface that aided bowlers.
When questioned about Pathirana’s decline this season, head coach Stephen Fleming put it down to the change in his bowling action by Sri Lanka Cricket.
“Pathirana in South Africa was way off, and yes there was an issue with his action and that’s probably a question for Sri Lankan cricket but we’ve certainly tried to get him back to form and get him back to what we think is his best action,” Fleming said in the post-match press conference.
Playing for Jo’burg Super Kings in the SA20 2024-25, Pathirana bowled 17 overs in six matches and finished with just three wickets while having an economy of of 10.47.
“He’s not far away, he’s made massive improvement in the 2 months since South Africa, and we hope he keeps making that improvement. Part of his evolution is he is going to be asked to change things and at some point he will have to settle on an action that gives him the best results. He bowled two good overs today but with that action everything has to be in the right sync to get the results,” Fleming further added.
CSK will try to get out of the bottom place when they next face Punjab Kings at the Chepauk on Wednesday.
--With Agencies Inputs
