Matheesha Pathirana (born 18 December 2002) is a Sri Lankan

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er. He has been referred to as Baby Malinga, as he has modelled his bowling action after

Lasith Malinga Separamadu Lasith Malinga ( si, සෙපරමාදු ලසිත් මාලිංග; born 28 August 1983), nicknamed "Slinga Malinga", is a Sri Lankan former cricketer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest limited overs bowlers ...

. In August 2021, he was named in the SLC Greys' squad for the

2021 SLC Invitational T20 League The 2021 SLC Invitational T20 League was a Twenty20 cricket tournament that took place in Sri Lanka from 12 to 24 August 2021. All the matches were played at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, in Kandy, and were used as preparation for ...

. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have ...

debut on 22 August 2021, for SLC Greys in the 2021 SLC Invitational T20 League. Prior to his Twenty20 debut, he was part of Sri Lanka's squad for the

2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2020 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament that was held in South Africa from 17 January to 9 February 2020. It was the thirteenth edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, and the second to be ...

. In January 2022, he was named in Sri Lanka's team for the

2022 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup The 2022 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup was an international limited-overs cricket tournament that was held in the West Indies in January and February 2022 with sixteen teams taking part. It was the fourteenth edition of the Under-19 Cricket Wor ...

in the West Indies. He was a key member of the Chennai Super Kings team which won the IPL trophy in 2023. He picked 19 wickets in the 2023 edition of the IPL. H
became the youngest foreign player to win an IPL trophy.

Franchise cricket

In April 2022, he was signed by the

Chennai Super Kings Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is an Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise cricket team based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 2008, the team plays its home matches at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. The team is owned by India ...

, as a replacement for

Adam Milne Adam Fraser Milne (born 13 April 1992) is a New Zealand professional cricketer who plays limited overs cricket for the New Zealand national cricket team. He is a right-arm fast bowler. Early life Milne was born in Palmerston North, New Zeala ...

for the 2022 Indian Premier League. He made his debut against the

Gujarat Titans Gujarat Titans is a franchise cricket team based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The Titans compete in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Founded in 2021, Gujarat Titans' home ground is Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera. The franchise is owned by CV ...

. In the very first ball, he took the wicket of

Shubman Gill Shubman Gill (born 8 September 1999) is an Indian international cricketer who plays for Punjab in domestic cricket as a right-handed opening batsman. He was the vice-captain of the India U-19 team for 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He got awar ...

, becoming the first Sri Lankan and ninth overall to achieve the feat in IPL. In July 2022, he was signed by the

Kandy Falcons Kandy Falcons, formerly known as Kandy Tuskers and Kandy Warriors, are a Sri Lankan franchise professional Twenty20 cricket team that competes in the Lanka Premier League (LPL), representing the city of Kandy, Sri Lanka which was founded in 2020 ...

for the third edition of the

Lanka Premier League The Lanka Premier League (abbreviated as LPL; , ) is a professional cricket league in Sri Lanka in Twenty20 format contested every year by teams representing Sri Lankan cities from 2020. The league was founded by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) in 201 ...

. He became the youngest Overseas Player to win an IPL tournament after CSK won the 2023 IPL.

International career

In May 2022, he was named in Sri Lanka's

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

(T20I) squad for their series against Australia. However, he did not play the series where later ruled out due to an injury. In August 2022, he was named in Sri Lanka's T20I squad for the

2022 Asia Cup The 2022 Asia Cup (also known as DP World Asia Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 15th edition of the Asia Cup cricket tournament, with the matches played as Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) during August and September 2022 in the United Arab Em ...

. He made his T20I debut on 27 August 2022, against

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...

. In March 2023, he was named in both

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

(ODI) and T20I squad for the series against New Zealand. He made his ODI debut on 2 June 2023, against Afghanistan. He dismissed Rahmat Shah to claim his maiden ODI wicket. In June 2023 Sri Lanka Cricket announced their 15-member squad for the ICC ODI World Cup qualifier. The national team opted to selected Matheesha Pathirana in their line-uphttps://www.indiatoday.in/sports/cricket/story/sri-lanka-name-squad-for-icc-odi-world-cup-qualifers-matheesha-pathirana-2390928-2023-06-09

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pathirana, Matheesha 2002 births Living people Sri Lankan cricketers Sri Lanka Twenty20 International cricketers Cricketers from Kandy Chennai Super Kings cricketers