Chennai Super Kings (CSK) bowling coach has backed speedster Matheesha Pathirana amid his poor form in the past five games of the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025) as well. Pathirana had a poor show against Punjab Kings as CSK ended up losing the game by four wickets. He has picked up two wickets in four overs, giving away 45 runs as Punjab chased down the target of 191 in 19.4 overs only.

After the game, Eric Simons commented on Pathirana’s poor performance and backed him, saying that his accuracy hasn’t been an issue, but batters have adapted well to score against him as well.

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“Oh well, there are a few things. I think it’s been quite well documented that there was a bit of an action change. But I think he’s pretty much back to where he was and just in terms of the height of his arm on a reasonably consistent basis. I’m not sure that he’s less accurate. I think batters are playing him a lot better. We can certainly see a trend in the way that batters are playing against him, particularly against Mumbai the other day. The technique that they’re using, they understand what his plans and what he does,” said Simons in the post-match press conference.

However, Simons also suggested that Pathirana also needs to evolve with time as batters have found how to score against him as well. In the eight matches he has played so far in the season, Pathirana has claimed nine wickets at an average of 33.11 and an economy of 10.39. Earlier, head coach Stephen Fleming also opined on Pathirana’s poor form to his action change.

“So the evolution, might just be what’s next for him tactically as to what he needs to do to keep evolving. Batters need to keep evolving, bowlers need to keep evolving. So again tonight, his channels are quite good. His lines are quite good. Obviously, he got his lengths, he’d prefer a fuller length, but the batsmen are treating him differently this year. So it’s about the evolution of him, but other than his accuracy, you know, if you check his accuracy, it’s not a reflection of maybe the runs that are scored,” he concluded.