Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan who has never lost sheen in his bowling strongly believes that he didn’t let his followers down wanting them to extend support for the talented bowler. Irfan Pathan who can make of swing bowling, as well as seam bowling exceptionally well to his considerable pace, played his last Test match in 2008 and One-Day International match in 2012 followed by a T20 match which also came in the same year.
With almost five years of absence as a prolific all-rounder in the International arena in the wake of a terrible injury that lost sheen in his consistent levels, many have written Irfan Pathan off already who thinks Irfan Pathan is completely done and dusted.
The talented pacer still has a lot of juice left in him to deliver the much-needed amends for India as a productive all-rounder. When Ashish Nehra proved age is just a number when he made a stellar rebound at the age of 37 why can’t Irfan Pathan do when he is just 32?
When you don’t perform well in India or in unfamiliar climes, questions would raise on the coherence on player’s performance. Well, that’s not the case here. Irfan Pathan hasn’t been as fit as fiddle to continue producing good memories in his blue jersey on a regular basis.
As they say “Everyone has highs and lows in life”, it is important to deal with that and come back strongly. When the latter lost the brisk command in bowling to hit the deck and with injuries putting brakes on his career, Irfan lost his spot in the Indian cricket team in 2009.
Had it not for a terrible injury, Irfan Pathan’s career on a regular basis would have been in safe hands. The woeful back injury was the sole reason that put an eight-months gap to Irfan’s career in 2010 forcing him to get out of the cash-rich Premier League which wasn’t one to remember at all in that injury-strike year.
However, Irfan’s “Never Give Up” attitude enabled him to shift gears in the 2011 season when he was bought for INR 1.9 million by Delhi Daredevils. Pathan improved to some extent and went all guns blazing in the Ranji Trophy in the 2011-12 season where he concluded the tournament on a high as the prominent wicket-taker.
Irfan’s candid show in the Ranji-Trophy earned him a green light to wear India jersey in 2011 when he was selected for West Indies ODIs in the final two games. Then, in the next year, Irfan Pathan came into the limelight after showing signs of spectacular bowling spells in the One-Day series against Sri Lanka and was also picked in World Cup T20 squad in 2012 where he played every single game, before the injury put a brake once again!
As far as the Indian Premier League is concerned, Irfan Pathan had mixed shows at Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab as well as SunRisers Hyderabad. Though he was sold to Chennai Super Kings for INR 1.5 crore, sadly he wasn’t hitting the matches for failing to succeed in fitness levels when he ran through an injury once again in 2015.
With Chennai Super Kings getting banned from playing for 2 seasons, the newly introduced franchise bought Irfan Pathan for his base price of INR 1 crore but was excluded from Pune’s playing XI which once again took the fans by surprise. Even at the recently-concluded Vivo IPL auction 2017, Irfan Pathan remained unsold.
The 32-year-old pacer is currently playing for West Zone in the newly introduced Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Irfan Pathan picked up five wickets in his four games in the Inter-zonal competition recording an economy of 6.26 which is a massive improvement.
After all those tough times, Irfan Pathan faced in his career, the latter took to the twitter feed to share it with fans and also thanked his fans for extending their support.
To all my fans 😊 pic.twitter.com/jQaMbjPNTe
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) February 21, 2017