Irfan Pathan- India
Irfan Pathan will always remain a folk hero, an enigma who slayed his fan’s hearts for fun. But he will also remain an unfulfilled dream, someone, who we so wish that we’d seen more of. But unfortunately, it all ended at the age of 28.
Pathan burst on the scene as a prodigiously talented left-arm fast bowler during the 2003-04 tour of Australia and for the better part of the next three years impinged himself as the leader of the Indian pace attack. But the change in action in 2006 led to his speed getting dropped and swing also taking a considerable hit.
Irfan repackaged himself as an able seam-bowling all-rounder between 2007-12 but the lack of support from the team-management meant that Pathan was dropped from the set-up post the 2012 T20 World Cup. He was a part of the 2013 Champions Trophy squad but did not get a single game. Pathan’s international career, in which he claimed a total of 301 wickets, came to an end at the age of 28.
