Pathira Vasan Dushmantha Chameera (born 11 January 1992) is a professional Sri Lankan cricketer. He plays for all three international formats for Sri Lanka. He also plays domestically for Nondescripts Cricket Club. This player made his international debut for Sri Lanka in January 2015.
It was in March 2018 that Chameera was named in Colombo’s squad for the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. The following month, he was also named in Colombo’s squad for the 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament.
That was the start of his career. In January 2018, he was bought by the Rajasthan Royals in the 2018 IPL auction. However, he missed the first weeks of the tournament with a back injury. It so happened that in August of the same year Chameera was named in Galle’s squad for the 2018 SLC T20 League.
In March 2019, he was named to Galle’s squad for the 2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament. The next year, that is, in October 2020, he was drafted by the Colombo Kings for the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League.
In August 2021, the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad included him for the second phase of the 2021 IPL in the UAE. In November of the same year, the Colombo Stars selected him to play following the players’ draft for the 2021 Lanka Premier League. But this year, the Lucknow Super Giants bought him in the auction to play on behalf of their team in the IPL.
Chameera is a right-arm fast bowler. He made his ODI debut for Sri Lanka against New Zealand on 29 January 2015. It was in this match that he took his first international wicket in his first over. Actually he bowled out Ross Taylor and also dismissed Grant Elliott. With this, Sri Lanka won the match.
This bowler was selected to play the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. However, did not take part in first few matches. He was picked for the squad against Sri Lanka’s last pool A match against Scotland. In this, he took 3 wickets for 51 runs. Sri Lanka went on to win the match again.
Chameera made his Test debut against Pakistan in June 2015. He was given the 129th Test cap for Sri Lanka. This player took his first Test wicket when he bowled out Zulfiqar Babar for 5 runs. In the second innings of the same match, he guided Sri Lanka to the win by taking three wickets.
We can say that he finished with figures of 4/76 in 28.5 overs in both innings. He suffered a side-strain in the match. This caused the team to rule him out of the third Test of the series. He made his 20-20 International debut for Sri Lanka against the West Indies on the 9th of November 2015.
In May 2018, Chameera was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018–19 season. In May 2021, it was his third match against Bangladesh. There he took his first five-wicket haul in an ODI match and he was also the man of the match in the same match.
In the third ODI against South Africa on 7 September 2021, Chameera made an impressive match-winning opening bowling performance. Finally, Sri Lanka won by 78 runs. This made Chameera the man of the match as well.
Later the same month, Chameera was named in Sri Lanka’s squad for the 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. He had his no-ball in a game against Australia in the T20 World Cup. The press described this as “a contender for one of the worst deliveries of all-time”, “worst ball bowled”, and “one of the filthiest balls you will ever witness”.