Matheesha Pathirana does not do well because Kusal Mendis did not mentor him !!! Really? Let's bust the myth

Matheesha Pathirana does not do well in SL colors because Kusal Mendis did not mentor him very well as Dhoni did.

Really?

It is another common myth.

Let's first take the technical aspects. How can a captain impact a bowler? Even in IPL, Matheesha bowled a lot of boundary balls. IPL's low quality and his bowling speed assure that they get away in IPL. This will not be the same in international cricket, and there is nothing the captain can do about it. However, the captain decides when he bowls, makes strategies and supports the bowler in field placements. That is one way the role of a captain impacts on the number of boundaries. And, when the number of boundaries increases, the bowler panics and tries to be conservative. He tries to bowl wide yorkers to build dot balls. With his lack of control and building pressure, Matheesha sprays the ball all over. So partially due to captain's weaknesses and also due to Matheesha's weaknesses that get exposed in higher quality international games, he gives away more runs, wides and becomes lesser attacking. Partial impact only.

All right. That means that Kusal Mendis DID have a part in messing up Matheesha ha?

No. Kusal Mendis has never captained a single complete game which Matheesha played. he may have been standing in when the captain is out of the ground during ODIs, but even that was not possible in T20I. Matheesha played 12 ODIs inder Dassa in 2023 including 2 in the WC and got injured in the same game that Dassa did. He played the first T20I in 2022 under Dassa and then in 2024, 3 under Waniya and 2 under Asalanka. Why do you blame Kusal Mendis? It is Kusal Mendis who should blame Matheesha for the long-term spine issues.

Ah ok. Then not Kusal Mendis, but SL captain is the reason for Matheesha's lack of performances ha?

Lack of what? Matheesha did not do well in ODI for sure and that was a wrong selection to begin with. We have not written the script for his ODI. But IPL is T20 so, in T20I in 2024, he has done significently well for SL. He has 11 wickets in 5 matches, going in-par with 13 in 6 IPL matches. Averaging 15, striking 10, only his economy of 9.21 is not in-par with IPL. So Matheesha HAS DONE WELL in SL jersy.

But Matheesha has only played Afghanistan and Bangladesh in T20I, both below IPL quality. So you can reserve your comments on Matheesha not being managed well under Waniya to post-WC.

But not Kusal Mendis. I know that Kusal Mendis is responsible for COVID, the Ukraine War, Gaza killings and the sinking of the Titanic, But at least you gotta relieve him from blaming for Matheesha matters.

Did the bowling just die in IPL 2024?

Lots of talk about what is happening in IPL this year. The way how IPL is played this season, the over-entertainment of hitting every ball to the fence can kill the enjoyment of the game and implode within itself. So what you are seeing cannot be a stability, yet a transient. The offshoot will fall within, for its own weight.

On the other hand, IPL is supposed to be so. That is the original idea behind it - behind all mercenary cricket around the globe. All this money, support and hype is not there to see a bunch of full-time and part-time bowlers defending 130 in a Premadasa dodgy dustbowl. This is why Mercenary cricket is not really cricket, but a popular festival.

We only need to worry about this if the WC will be played in the same fashion. Small pitches batting wonderlands and dominance. I highly doubt this.

Anyways, not only the boundaries and pitches, but the game rules have been changed too. Most notably the presence of the impact player. Having an impact player option, the first batting team can have an extra batter, and if everything goes wrong they can still insert another batter as the impact player (provided that they have enough all-rounders to cover for the bowling). This means, that the batters can try to target 15 runs per over, and if they fail, the team can potentially have up to two extra batters as cover-up. This makes batters entirely disposable. This is the secret behind the birth of modern power-hitting. Having Gura, Ara, Arjuna, Hashan and Roshan at numbers 3-7 made the openers Sanath and Kalu totally disposable. Hence they - who were rare natural hitters of their time - were told to go 10 runs per over and it would be perfectly all right if they got out.

This disposability allows the top order to hit 15 runs per over. Simply put, they treat every ball as a free hit. Why not? The pitch has no magic and the boundaries are moved back in even for a miss-hit to go for six. In the rare misfortune that you get out, the team have enough batters.

However, in IPL's new bowling reality, the bowlers have not come back as yet. It looks like a single is as massive as a maiden over. Anything between 125k-140k range being free lunch at hitting-end. Bowlers and management have not responded to this yet. Expect more and more of 150k bowlers. Expect more and more change of pace slow balls from other bowlers. IPL bowling evolution will be on the drawing boards of 100 pundits as of now. They will build a whole new strategy. 

Bowling is not dead, just bamboozled by the sudden attack. They will come back. It is interesting and lovely to look forward to see how they return.

In the meantime, let that be mercenary cricket - what you get for what you paid. I will only be seriously worried if I see these pitches these kinda grounds and these lunatic rule changes appearing in cricket proper, that is country vs country such as the upcoming WC.

Let's see.