Watch: Sri Lanka suffer huge blow as Matheesha Pathirana walks off the field after suffering shoulder injury

Sri Lanka's stunning start with the ball in the ongoing third T20I against India turned a bit sour as their star pacer Matheesha Pathirana had to walk off the field owing to a shoulder injury.

The right-arm pacer ended up hurting his shoulder while fielding. The incident took place in the seventh over. On the final ball of the over, Chamindu Wickramasinghe bowled one outside the off stump to Shivam Dube and the latter hit the ball towards deep backward point.

The ball looked destined to reach the boundary but Matheesha Pathirana had other plans. The Sri Lanka pacer, however, had other ideas as he came up with a sliding effort to stop the ball. However, he ended up injuring his shoulder while sliding on the field and had to leave the field straightaway.

Watch the save from Matheesha Pathirana:

pic.twitter.com/c7aZQ2rkDD

— Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka (@Hanji_CricDekho) July 30, 2024

Matheesha Pathirana had not bowled any over till that point in that game and it looks highly unlikely that the Sri Lankan team management would be willing to take any risk with his shoulder. The Sri Lankan team management will be hoping that the injury is not serious and the pacer remains fit for the upcoming three-match ODI series against Team India.

In the first two games of the ongoing series, Matheesha Pathirana picked up 5 wickets. He picked up 4 wickets for 40 runs in the first game before taking 1 for 18 in the second. However, Sri Lanka lost both the games as India clinched the three-match series.

Sri Lanka on top:

Talking about the ongoing game, Sri Lanka are firmly in the driver's seat. The game started on a good note for them as they won the toss and opted to field first. Sri Lanka's bowlers went on to justify the decision by taking four wickets inside the powerplay.

Maheesh Theekshana gave Sri Lanka the first breakthrough by dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal before Wickramasinghe dismissed Sanju Samson. Rinku Singh and Suryakumar Yadav could not do much with the bat either as India found themselves reeling at 30 for 4 in the 6th over. At the time of writing this report, the Men in Blue were on 74 for 5 after 12 overs.