Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan Biography

Irfan Pathan is an Indian cricketer, born in Baroda, Gujarat on 27 October 1984. He is a left-handed batsman and a left-arm medium fast bowler. Primarily a bowler, he often helped put some great knocks with the bat down the order.

Background

He was noticed in junior cricket at a very young age of 13 years. He represented Baroda in U-14, U-15, U-16 and U-19 teams well below the age limit. He also played for India U-15. He was brilliant with both bat and the ball and his performances kept getting better.

He was then given a chance in the U-22 team. He returned with figures of 4/71 and scored 44 against Saurashtra. This performance made the selectors elevate him to the India Emerging Players squad.

Debut

Irfan made his international debut in a Test match against Australia on 12 December 2003 in Adelaide. It did not go well for him as he took 1/160 and scored only 1 run in the match. He was dropped in the next match.

He again got a chance two test matches later, but again he failed to impress with figures of 3/106 in the match.

In the tri-nation ODI series including Australia and Zimbabwe that followed, he was the highest wicket-taker. He took 16 wickets in the series. He got his first Man of the Match for his brilliant figures of 4/24 against Zimbabwe.

Rise to glory

He piled on a few records to his name. In 2005, in a two-Test series against Zimbabwe, he picked up 21 wickets and became only the third bowler in the world to do so. By the time, his batting was also coming to the fore as he was promoted up the order and scored a few half centuries batting at no. 3.

His quickfire innings of 83 runs against Sri Lanka proved to be the catalyst for India to score 350. He also took 4/37 and 3/38 in other matches of the series and got two Man of the Match awards.

He also performed in both the departments in Test cricket. His then-Test-best score of 93 runs again came against Sri Lanka and set up the match for India. His fifties in Test cricket were like bonus for the team.

In 2006, he got an A-grade contract by the BCCI and was also being compared to the all-time legend all-rounder Kapil Dev.

He then was part of the ICC T20 World Cup winning squad in 2007. He was one of the senior players of the young team.

Low points

Since the World T20 win, his performance did not remain consistent. He was in and out of the team. His talent and skills forced the selectors to call him back, but his poor form kept him out of the team again and again.

He made a few comebacks to the Indian team but none of them lasted long. His domestic performances were also not so great. He last played for the national team in a T20 against South Africa in 2012. He has failed to make a comeback since then.

Club career

He has played for the English county Middlesex in 2005. Apart from that, he has played only the IPL.

In 2008, since the inception of IPL, he played for the Kings XI Punjab for three years. Later, he switched teams and played for the Delhi Daredevils for another three years.

His performances were not upto the mark in IPL as well. Due to this, he had to keep changing his teams every year since then. He played for the Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2014, Chennai Super Kings in 2015, Rising Pune Supergiants in 2016 and Gujarat Lions in 2017.

Records

Irfan Pathan is the only bowler to take a hat-trick in the first over of a Test match. He is the fastest Indian bowler to 100 ODI wickets (59 matches, Next best: 65 matches by Zaheer Khan).

He also holds the record for the fastest ODI double of 1000 runs and 100 wickets (1059 days).

In 29 Test matches, he has amassed 1105 runs at an average of 31.57. He has six fifties and one century to his name. Also, he has taken exactly 100 Test wickets at an average of 32.26. His best bowling figures are 7/59.

He has 1544 ODI runs under his belt at an average of 23.39 in 120 matches. He has 5 fifties in ODI cricket. He also has 173 wickets at 29.72 with 5/27 being his best.

He has played 24 T20Is and scored 172 runs. He has taken 28 wickets at an average of 22.07 and economy rate of 8.02.