KKR bought Matheesha Pathirana for INR 18 crore
KKR targeted Pathirana specifically for death-over control
His slingy action adds a different matchup option
Prodigious Sri Lankan fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana hit the jackpot at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 mini auction in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on Tuesday, December 16.
Released by Chennai Super Kings, the 22-year-old from Kandy, as expected, triggered a bidding war. Initially, the Delhi Capitals looked favourites to sign the youngster, but Lucknow Super Kings made it intense with every bid followed by another.
When DC pulled out at INR 15.8 crore (with LSG), Kolkata Knight Riders swooped in to seal the deal with a mouth-watering INR 18 crore. KKR, of course, entered the auction with the biggest purse, and they had earlier splurged a whopping INR 25.2 crore to sign Aussie all-rounder Cameron Green.
Pathirana, known for his slingy bowling action and death-accurate yorkers, has 47 wickets in IPL 32 matches.
Squads Before Mini Auction
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Noor Ahmad (Afghanistan), Khaleel Ahmed, MS Dhoni, Anshul Kamboj, Dewald Brevis (South Africa), Gurjapneet Singh, Nathan Ellis (Australia), Jamie Overton (England), Mukesh Choudhary, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Shreyas Gopal, Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel.
Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc (Australia), T. Natarajan, Tristan Stubbs (South Africa), Mukesh Kumar, Nitish Rana, Abhishek Porel, Ashutosh Sharma, Sameer Rizvi, Dushmantha Chameera (Sri Lanka), Karun Nair, Madhav Tiwari, Ajay Manda, Tripurana Vijay, Vipraj Nigam.
Gujarat Titans: Rashid Khan (Afghanistan), Shubman Gill, Jos Buttler (England), Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada (South Africa), Prasidh Krishna, Sai Sudarshan, Rahul Tewatia, Shahrukh Khan, Washington Sundar, R. Sai Kishore, Glenn Phillips (New Zealand), Arshad Khan, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Manav Suthar, Nishant Sindhu.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine (West Indies), Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Ramandeep Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Vaibhav Arora, Ajinkya Rahane, Rovman Powell (West Indies), Manish Pandey, Umran Malik, Anukul Roy.
Lucknow Super Giants: Rishabh Pant, Nicholas Pooran (West Indies), Mayank Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan, Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Mohsin Khan, Mitchell Marsh (Australia), Shahbaz Ahmed, Aiden Markram (South Africa), Manimaran Siddharth, Matthew Breetzke (South Africa), Akash Singh, Arjun Tendulkar, Arshin Kulkarni, Himmat Singh, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav.
Mumbai Indians: Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma, Trent Boult (New Zealand), Deepak Chahar, Tilak Varma, Will Jacks (England), Naman Dhir, Allah Ghazanfar, Sherfane Rutherford, Shardul Thakur, Mitchell Santner (New Zealand), Ryan Rickelton (South Africa), Corbin Bosch (South Africa), Robin Minz, Raj Angad Bawa, Ashwani Kumar, Raghu Sharma, Mayank Markande.
Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Marcus Stoinis (Australia), Marco Jansen (South Africa), Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Mitchell Owen, Azmatullah Omarzai (Afghanistan), Lockie Ferguson (New Zealand), Vijaykumar Vyshak, Yash Thakur, Harpreet Brar, Vishnu Vinod, Xavier Bartlett (Australia), Pyla Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge.
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Jofra Archer (England), Shimron Hetmyer (West Indies), Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Nandre Burger (South Africa), Sam Curran (England), Kwena Maphaka (South Africa), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Donovan Ferreira (South Africa), Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh, Lhuan-dre Pretorius (South Africa).
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Josh Hazlewood (Australia), Phil Salt (England), Rajat Patidar, Jitesh Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Krunal Pandya, Yash Dayal, Tim David (Australia), Suyash Sharma, Jacob Bethell (England), Devdutt Padikkal, Nuwan Thushara (Sri Lanka), Romario Shepherd (West Indies), Swapnil Singh, Abhinandan Singh.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Heinrich Klaasen (South Africa), Pat Cummins (Australia), Travis Head (Australia), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Harshal Patel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Eshan Malinga (Sri Lanka), Brydon Carse (England), Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis (Sri Lanka), Zeeshan Ansari, Smaran Ravichandran, Aniket Verma, Harsh Dubey.
When Is IPL 2026?
As revealed by IPL CEO Hemang Amin during a meeting between the franchises and league officials in Abu Dhabi on the eve of the mini-auction, the 19th edition of the Indian Premier League will be held between March 26 and May 31 next year. Interestingly, the final of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 is scheduled for March 8.
Traditionally, IPL season kicks off at the home of the defending champions. But with the BCCI yet to announce the fixtures, it cannot be said with certainty that holders Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will start their title defence at home. The RCB defeated the Punjab Kings by six runs in the IPL 2025 final, but their victory celebration at Chinnaswamy Stadium turned tragic as a stampede claimed 11 lives. In the aftermath, authorities have declared the iconic venue unsafe to host events.
And for the second successive year, the IPL dates will clash with the Pakistan Super League, which will run from March 26 to May 3.
