IPL 2023 bowler Matheesha Pathirana, known as “Baby Malinga,” dazzles MS Dhoni with his performance
Table of Contents
In 2021, MS Dhoni saw a video of Matheesha Pathirana bowling that went viral. Dhoni immediately liked him and saw his potential, so he tried to get him into the IPL team.
This never happened because the Sri Lanka cricket team was not provided NOC at the time, which prevented Pathirana’s future IPL and transition to CSK.
Pacer Matheesha Pathirana has revealed that skipper MS Dhoni motivated him after a costly first spell against RCB.#CricTracker #MatheeshaPathirrana #RCBvCSK pic.twitter.com/bmN84UQDdB
— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) April 19, 2023
“He was only 17 or 18 then, and it was peak of the pandemic when Dhoni wrote a letter asking Pathirana to get vaccinated and join the team in the UAE,” The pacers train at Trinity College, where Bilal Fassy built the cricketing infrastructure, according to The Indian Express.
“He had already played the U-19 World Cup by then (2020) and was featuring in Bangladesh leagues. One of his videos of him demolishing the batsmen with yorkers had gone viral then and that’s when even the Super Kings showed interest in him,” according to Fassy.
Pathirana, who is now 20 years old, is CSK’s expert in ending lives. As a result of his throwing motion, which reminded people of Lasith Malinga, he had already earned the nicknames ‘Podi (little) Malinga’, “Mini Mali (Malinga’s nickname was Mali), and now called, “Baby Malinga” by CSK supporters.
It’s interesting that his father claims that Malinga is not to blame for the action. “We heard that his bowling action is similar to that of Malinga’s. But he has not copied it. He used to bowl like that when he started to play cricket. Rigorous training helped him improve his bowling skills,” The father had previously spoken to The Sunday Observer.
Pathirana has been practising with Malinga as well since since he began to draw attention in school cricket. The Under-19 World Cup in 2020 wasn’t particularly successful for him, but the tournament in 2022, which was played right before the IPL the previous year, saw a huge improvement in his bowling.
“In the last three years, he has developed a lot. The video that Dhoni saw was not from a first-class game or something, but from a school tournament against (Sanath) Jayasuriya’s school. And very soon even Malinga, who has been coaching few boys with similar action, started showing interest in Pathirana too. Unlike others in the group, what impressed Malinga was Pathirana’s speed and the accuracy he was able to get. He still has work about his consistency in gaining accuracy, but you can see him gaining confidence,” Fassy said.
