Irfan Pathan retires: VVS Laxman wishes the all-rounder luck for his 2nd innings

VVS Laxman came forward to congratulate Irfan Pathan who had announced his retirement from the gentleman's game on Saturday. Both Laxman and Irfan have been a part of India's famous triumphs in the early 2000s which include the tied Test series against Australia Down Under in 2003/04 and the Pakistan tour that followed under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly.

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'You can be proud of what you have achieved': VVS Laxman

Taking to the micro-blogging site, VVS Laxman wrote that it was such a joy to see Irfan Pathan evolve from an aspiring 17-year-old cricketer to a matured player at the highest level. Laxman then told Pathan that he can be very proud of what he has achieved not only as a cricketer but also in mentoring young cricketers from J&K. The ex-batsman concluded by wishing the veteran pacer a very happy 2nd innings. 

Read the tweet here:

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The illustrious cricketing career of Irfan Pathan

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.  

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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