Irfan Pathan Asserts Greg Chappell Did Not Spoil His Career; Reveals It Was Sachin Tendulkar's Idea To Promote Him To The No.3 Spot

Irfan Pathan, former Indian seam-bowling all-rounder, has once asserted that Greg Chappell should not be blamed for spoiling his career.

Greg Chappell, who had a tumultuous stint as the head coach of the Indian cricket team between 2005-07 and many fans still believe that he was the reason behind spoiling Irfan’s career by constantly changing his batting-order.

Irfan batted at the No.3 slot on 18 occasions between 2005-08, in which he scored 487 runs at an average of 28.64 including two half-centuries. The constant shuffling of the batting order coupled with his loss of form with the ball contributed greatly towards the all-rounder’s slump in fortunes.

However, Irfan revealed that it was actually Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar who came up with the idea of slotting him at the No.3 spot.

“I had said this after I had announced my retirement as well. Those who talk about Greg Chappell spoiling my career, by sending me as an allrounder at No.3 and all these things actually, it was Sachin paaji’s idea. He advised Rahul Dravid to send me at No.3. He said ‘he (Irfan) has the power to hit sixes, can take on the new ball and can play the fast bowlers well too,” Irfan Pathan told Raunak Kapoor on his Youtube channel ‘Beyond the field’.

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‘It is easier to make him a punching bag’- Irfan Pathan on Greg Chappell

Irfan Pathan recalled that the first time he was sent to bat at No.3 was during an ODI series in Sri Lanka where he was primed with the task of attacking the likes of Dilhara Fernando and Muttiah Muralitharan.

The move eventually didn’t work but Irfan asserted that it is unfair to blame Chappell, adding that it is easy to make Chappell a ‘punching bag’ since he is not an Indian.

“It was tried for the first time in the series against Sri Lanka when Muralitharan was at his peak, and the idea was to attack him as well. (Dilhara) Fernando back then had started the concept of the split-finger slower ball. Batsmen didn’t understand that too well, so the belief was if I could pull it off, it could work in our favor, especially since it was the first match of the series,” said Pathan.

“It’s not true that Greg Chappell spoiled my career. Since he was not from India, it is easier to make him a punching bag,” Irfan Pathan added.

Irfan Pathan claimed a total of 301 wickets and scored around 2500 runs before calling time on his career earlier this year, eight years after playing his last international game for the country.

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