Matheesha Pathirana will not feature in the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), as Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has denied him a No-Objection Certificate, according to reports. This marks the second player for Kolkata Knight Riders who will be forced to sit out of IPL 2026 after the BCCI had earlier directed the removal of Bangladesh cricketer Mustafizur Rahman.
Pathirana was brought by KKR at the IPL mini-auction for a price of INR 11.00 crore to bolster their pace attack; however, all that may go in vain. The reason for the denial of Pathirana’s application to feature in the cash-rich tournament remains unknown at the moment, but it is assumed that the fast bowler has not cleared the fitness tests.
According to FPJ, Pathirana has been away from the cricket field for quite some time now. The youngster, who has played for Chennai Super Kings in the past, had also missed Sri Lanka’s series against England and the subsequent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup as well, which the Lankan Lions played in at home.
In Rahman’s case, KKR had enough time on their hands to sign a replacement in Zimbabwean bowler Blessing Muzarabani. However, the three-time winners have already started their preparations for the upcoming season, which begins on March 28. As a result, the franchise may be in a haste to find the best possible replacement for the Sri Lankan international.
Neither KKR nor IPL Technical Committee have made any official statement on the matter as of writing, but an update is expected to be put out soon, as the ten-team event is only a few days away from its grand commencement.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ squad for IPL 2026
Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ajinkya Rahane, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Umran Malik, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Matheesha Pathirana, Tejasvi Singh, Kartik Tyagi, Prashant Solanki, Daksh Kamra, Sarthak Ranjan, Blessing Muzarabani, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Akash Deep, Rachin Ravindra.
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