On talent, it looks like a blunder; on price and recent output, it feels like a reset. Whether it’s a mistake depends on how you weigh those two halves.

Is CSK’s Pathirana call a mistake?

Matheesha Pathirana has 47 wickets in 32 IPL matches at an average of 21.61 and an economy of 8.68, most of them in high-pressure overs – genuinely top tier for a specialist quick. At the death alone, he has more than 30 wickets, and since 2023, no bowler has more T20 wickets in overs 16-20 than him. By skill profile, CSK are walking away from a rare asset.

But the 2025 dip and the context around it are real. Last season, he took 13 wickets in 12 games while conceding runs at an economy of over 10, a sharp slide from his performance in IPL 2023 and 2024. Injuries and workload issues have become a theme, and CSK’s brains believe tweaks made by Sri Lanka to his release point have disturbed his control – exactly what MS Dhoni had warned about when he said Pathirana would need careful management. In that light, tying up INR 13 cr in a mini-auction year to one overseas specialist starts to look like an expensive bet rather than an automatic retention.

Add the squad reset, and the move makes more sense. Jadeja and Sam Curran have gone out for Sanju Samson. Conway, and Rachin Ravindra have been released, and CSK now walk into the auction with one of the biggest purses in the league.

Freeing INR 13 cr from an overseas quick with fitness flags gives them flexibility to buy a different style of seamer and deepen Indian pace stocks. So the logic is clear: Pathirana at that fee, in this fitness and form cycle, is a risk they chose not to take – not a verdict that he’s suddenly ordinary.

Who could go after him? Will CSK repurchase him?

Delhi Capitals, with Mitchell Starc but no nailed-down death specialist, have both overseas slots and money to play with. Pathirana’s right-arm sling alongside Starc’s left-arm pace is a ready-made end-overs partnership, and their Indian batting core lets them afford another overseas quick.

Kolkata Knight Riders have released Anrich Nortje and Spencer Johnson, sit on the biggest purse in the room (INR 64.3 cr), and don’t have a frontline overseas fast bowler. A fit Pathirana backing up Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy is exactly the kind of high-ceiling punt a rebooting, cash-rich KKR can take.

Also, CSK are not out of the story. There are multiple reports that CSK have released Pathirana with the possibility of buying him back cheaper at the auction. If the bidding stays sane and Chennai still walk away, the mistake won’t be the release itself – it will be allowing someone else to unlock his peak for a price they could comfortably have matched.