Matheesha Pathirana granted NOC by Sri Lanka Cricket to join KKR for IPL 2026

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has granted the no-objection certificate (NOC) to Matheesha Pathirana to travel to India and join his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for the ongoing 19th edition of the cash-rich league.

Pathirana has successfully recovered from the calf strain he suffered during the course of Sri Lanka's ICC Men's T20 World Cup campaign in February. As per a report on ESPNcricinfo, Pathirana is supposed to link up with KKR on April 17. 

KKR are slated to play Gujarat Titans on April 17 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and will return to Eden Gardens to host Rajasthan Royals on April 19. Pathirana is expected to be available for selection for the match against Royals at home. 

KKR will breathe a sigh of relief as they are now the only team left in the competition without a win. Though they have a solitary point, which they got virtue of a washout against Punjab Kings in a home game on April 6, they are tottering at the bottom of the points table with a net run rate (NRR) of -1.315. They have lost three out of their four games. 

KKR have a fairly depleted bowling attack. They are without the services of Harshit Rana, who underwent surgery on his right knee after missing out on the ICC Men's T20 World Cup and is continuing his rehab. KKR are currently dependent on their second-string bowlers, like Vaibhav Arora, Navdeep Saini among others.

KKR squad for IPL 2026:

Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi, Blessing Muzarabani, Manish Pandey, Tejasvi Dahiya, Rahul Tripathi, Saurabh Dubey, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakaravarthy, Tim Seifert, Sarthak Ranjan, Rachin Ravindra, Prashant Solanki, Matheesha Pathirana, Umran Malik, Daksh Kamra

Support Staff:  

Abhishek Nayar, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, Tim Southee, Andre Russell, Dishant Yagnik