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Joburg Super Kings announced the acquisition of Matheesha Pathirana as their wildcard pick for SA20 2025. The showpiece event will be played from January 9 to February 5 at six venues across South Africa.
The update comes after the SA20 auction took place on Tuesday, October 1, which saw the Super Kings secure the services of three players. They signed the likes of Wihan Lubbe, Evan Jones, and Doug Bracewell while selecting JP King as their rookie player.
However, the franchise didn't announce their wildcard pick at the time of the auction and had time until December 30 to finalize the name. Nevertheless, the Super Kings posted a video on Wednesday morning (October 2) confirming Sri Lankan pacer, Pathirana as their wildcard player.
Check out the official announcement by Super Kings below:
The Super Kings line-up boasts experienced batters like Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali, and Jonny Bairstow. With the addition of Matheesha Pathirana, they have a credible bowling attack with Imran Tahir, Tabraiz Shamsi, and Nandre Burger already on the roster.
The SA20 2024 saw the Joburg Super Kings finish fourth in the league stage to qualify for the playoffs. However, they lost the Qualifier 2 against Durban's Super Giants.
How has Matheesha Pathirana fared for CSK in IPL?
Matheesha Pathirana made his Indian Premier League (IPL) debut for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2022 season. However, he could feature in only two games and pick as many wickets.
The 2023 season saw Pathirana make an impact and become a regular in CSK's XI. He scalped 19 wickets in 12 games and played a key role in helping the franchise lift their fifth IPL title.
In IPL 2024, Pathirana played six games, scalping 13 wickets, with best figures of 4/28. He was ruled out of the remainder of the tournament due to a hamstring injury. Overall, the right-arm pacer has bagged 34 wickets in 20 appearances for CSK in the T20 league.
After recovering from injury, the right-arm pacer returned to competitive cricket in the Lanka Premier League (LPL). He picked up 15 wickets in nine games for the Colombo Strikers.
Thereafter, the 21-year-old took five wickets in the T20I series against India in July. He suffered a mild sprain on his right shoulder in the final T20I and did not bowl in the entire game.
