Matheesha Pathirana arrives - and may need to pivot for KKR

Matheesha Pathirana might just be the most discussed KKR player without actually playing for them yet. It's been five weeks since Abhishek Nayar first confirmed his absence, a triple setback to a team already without Harshit Rana and Akash Deep. This week, the image of him in purple drapes must be a sight for the sore eyes of KKR fans.

Pathirana's first session with KKR was a solo one, a day before they travelled to Lucknow. With only coaches for company, he got a quick first feel with an empty net and three stumps. The evening before the game, he was in full flow.

It began with casual warm-ups with the rest of the bowling unit, jogging on one side of the outfield before he grabbed hold of a ball. With a bowling arm strapped in three parts, he thundered in with a full run-up, bowling alongside a mix of quicks and spinners. The first set of servings were for Rinku Singh and Anukul Roy, paired up on the side nets. As a bonus, Ramandeep Singh was right behind the nets, shadow batting to them. Under the watchful eyes of Shane Watson and Tim Southee, he fired in yorker after yorker to both lefties. The idea was to give very little room to either and the radar was firmly fixed on the middle-and-leg stump line.

Rinku looked to adjust by covering his stumps but couldn't do much when the ball hurtled to the leg-stump. On one occasion, he jammed his bat at the last moment. Pathirana smiled. Umran Malik clapped from behind. When a similar one, to Anukul, drifted down leg, Pathirana scowled and closed his eyes.

Soon after, the two teams switched nets, and Pathirana squared up against Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Tim Seifert. He hardly erred on his channel, trying out more slower ones to the right-handed pair. One ball seamed past Raghuvanshi's bat. An attempted slower bouncer was calmly steered away by Raghuvanshi. Seifert was tricked by another slower ball outside off. Pathirana smiled again.

Now, it's unfair to assume Pathirana will be KKR's silver bullet. Firstly, he is returning from injury. Secondly, winning every game from this point will require much more than one person. But the value addition cannot be ignored.

Pathirana walks into a team ranked last, with one win in seven games. Deprived of their first-choice quicks, KKR have reconfigured their attack, combining Vaibhav Arora with Kartik Tyagi; Blessing Muzarabani and Navdeep Saini making brief appearances. Now, none of them are quite Pathirana, their INR 18 Cr buy. Between 2023 and 2025, no other Sri Lanka bowler took more T20 wickets (130). Enough has been said about that vicious sling, and the yorkers it can deliver.

So far, KKR's bowlers have had the worst economy rate (10.82) and boundary percentage (27.15) among all teams. Which is why, it is interesting to see what role they put him in: since the start of 2025, he has bowled most (32 out of 36 times) in the middle-phase (7 to 15), averaging 42.60 at an economy of 9.66.

KKR have been poor in the Powerplay though, conceding 11.83 runs an over, with six wickets at 71.00, and a boundary percentage of nearly 33. They have often been able to pull things back, but those Powerplay showings are statistically the worst among all teams.

They are likely to divide him between the Powerplay and death. In the first six overs, his economy rate in the same period has been 7.21, taking five wickets at 22.60 from 14 innings. They can then happily remove Cam Green in the Powerplay and potentially give the rapidly improving Tyagi more time in the middle overs.

At the death, KKR have actually done decently so far, taking 16 wickets at 17.37, at an economy of 9.64. That's the second-best economy among all teams in overs 16-20. Pathirana's yorkers could come in use there as well. While he has gone at 10.41 at the death since 2025, his strike-rate is 14.5.

But the new ball is where Pathirana's role will be most crucial. Stop the early leak, peg back the opposition with quick strikes, and help KKR snatch advantage, instead of playing catch-up like they have. And it will be a different role from that at CSK last year, where he was brought out only in the second half of the innings, usually as the sixth option, and didn't bowl even once in the Powerplay.

Just before disappearing for the evening, Pathirana linked up with fielding coach Dishant Yagnik for a catching session, solo, just like he was the first day in purple. Coming in with little to lose and a lot to gain, Pathirana will be hoping for more smiles than scowls.