Kugadas Mathulan is a 17-year-old bowling prodigy from Sri Lanka whose video showing him bowling a toe-crushing yorker went viral on social media recently.
Reports suggesting that MS Dhoni also saw the video and summoned him to the CSK nets in Chennai, surfaced on Friday, March 15.
However, CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan has clarified that Dhoni was not involved in the process of roping Kugadas Mathulan as a CSK bet bowler. Mathulan grabbed the attention of the CSK scouts with his performances in the age-group tournament and state-level competitions for St John’s College.
“We have taken him as a net bowler, and the CSK bowler did his selection. MS Dhoni is not involved in this,” CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan told Sports Now.
Mathulan bowls with a slingy action, and we thought it would be good for us to have him and practice. We normally get bowlers of different varieties during practice, and he is one of them,” Viswanathan added
Kugadas Mathulan has gained a lot of lime light due to his raw pace and slinging action like former Sri Lanka great Lasith Malinga. Interestingly, CSK had unearthed Matheesha Pathirana, another bowler from Sri Lanka with a slinging Malinga-like action, ahead of the IPL 2022.
Pathirana emerged as the key bowler for MS Dhoni’s CSK in the IPL 2023 as he picked 19 wickets in 12 matches at an average of 19.52. Only Ravindra Jadeja (20) and Tushar Deshpande (21) picked more wickets than him for the five-time champions. ‘s
Kugadas Mathulan’s viral video
The video of Kugadas Mathulan bowling a searing yorker to rattle the middle stump of Jaffna Central College batter while playing in the Big Match for St. John’s College. The in-swinging yorker forced the batter to drop on his all fours.
CSK are facing a few injury concerns ahead of their IPL 2024 opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Friday, March 22. Pathirana could miss the starting few matches of the IPL 2024 after suffering a Grade 1 hamstring strain on his left leg during the recently-concluded three-match T20I series against Bangladesh. Opener Devon Conway has recently undergone surgery on his injured thumb.
Utkarsh Singh Mykhel
source: mykhel.com