Irfan Pathan retires: from the 'Next Big Thing' to the 'Unsung Hero' of Indian Cricket

Irfan Pathan was one of the potential match-winners for India in the early and mid-2000s. He had the ability to provide some vital breakthroughs with the new ball in hand and worked in tandem along with the likes of Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Laxmipathy Balaji, RP Singh, Munaf Patel, S Sreesanth, etc. to register some memorable matches for India. While injuries and poor form eventually got in the way of him cementing his place in the side. 

Later when he did seem to rediscover his rhythm, he could not succeed in consolidating his spot due to a lot of competition in the Indian fast bowling set up and also due to the emergence of a unique bunch of fast bowlers. 

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Irfan Pathan's cricketing career

Irfan Pathan has represented India in 29 Tests, 102 One Day Internationals and 24 T20Is from 2003 to 2012. In his cricketing career which lasted for almost a decade, Pathan was a part of many of India's famous triumphs which include the historic tour of Pakistan in 2003-04, ICC World T20 2007, the Australian tri-series in 2007-08, ICC Champions Trophy 2013, etc. He had played his last international match against South Africa in the ICC World T20 2012.  

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Even though the veteran pacer was selected in the 2013 Champions Trophy squad, he did not feature in a single game as the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side went on to win the tournament without tasting a defeat. This was also the last time that Pathan would feature in the Indian squad. 

The Baroda cricketer has represented six teams in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He had played for Kings XI Punjab from 2008 to 2010 after which he was roped in by the now-defunct Delhi Daredevils where he had played from 2011-2013. In 2014 and 2015, he represented Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings and then went on to represent the now-defunct franchises Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions in 2016 and 2017 respectively. 

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