Last Update on: January 4th, 2020 at 06:27 pm
There was Kapil Dev, Venkatesh Prasad, Javagal Shrinath. And then there was Irfan Pathan, the youngster, who injected a fresh air of energy in India’s fast bowling department. His Test debut in 2003 against Australia wasn’t a promising one. As his career progressed, he went on to trouble the best in the business and was deemed as the reincarnation of Wasim Akram. Amid this, the left-arm seamer remained inconsistent in his overall career, mainly tussling with injuries.
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As a result of his fluctuating returns and being injury prone, the all-rounder stayed in and out of the side regularly. He made his final comeback in the year 2011 against West Indies in the ODI series an also earned a berth for the Commonwealth bank series. Yet, in the end, a career full of promise remained unfulfilled. The 35-year old played his last game for India in the ICC World T20 in 2012. Pathan featured in 120 ODIs, 29 Tests, and 24 T20 fixtures for India from 2003 to 2012.
With Irfan Pathan pulling curtains on his international career, we take a look at five glorious moments of his career:
Becoming the only bowler to take a Test hat-trick in the first over:
Back in 2004 before the series against Pakistan, Javed Miandad took a dig at Irfan Pathan, saying that he is a gully bowler and the type found in every corner on their nation’s streets. Inda were coming off the tour of Australia where the left-arm seamer bowled a magical delivery.
He returned to the same territory in 2006, knocking over three Pakistan batsmen in the first over in the third Test in Karachi. Irfan castled three elite batsmen in Salman Butt, Younis Khan, and Mohammad Yousuf. The 35-year old all-rounder is the only bowler in Tests to bag a hat-trick in the first over of the innings.