Birth Name : Irfan Khan Pathan
Date of birth : 27/10/1984
Place of birth : Baroda, Gujarat, India
Category : Cricket
Irfan Khan Pathan is an Indian cricketer who made his debut for India in 2003 and was a core member of the national team until a decline in form set in during 2006. He was born on 27 October 1984 at Baroda, Gujarat, India. He grew up with his brother 'Yusuf' in a mosque in Vadodara. His father served as the muezzin. Although their parents wished them to become Islamic scholars, Pathan and his brother took an interest in cricket. Their games on the grounds off and inside the mosque often necessitated apologies from their father to Muslim worshippers who visited it. Under the guidance of former Indian captain 'Datta Gaekwad', Pathan rose to get selected in the Under-14 Baroda cricket team, and when he was selected at Under-15 level to represent Baroda in a national tournament, he was finally presented with a full set of cricket equipment, having before been restricted to second-hand gear due to his family's limited economic means.
Awards
Test cricket
Man of the Match Awards
Opposite Bangladesh at Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka in 10–13 December 2004
Opposite Zimbabwe at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo in 13–16 September 2005
Opposite Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club, Harare in 20–22 September 2005
Opposite Australia at WACA Ground, Perth 16–19 in January 2008
Man of the Series Awards
Opposite Bangladesh in 2004/05
Opposite Zimbabwe in 2005
ODI Awards
Man of the Match Awards
Opposite Zimbabwe at WACA Ground, Perth on 3 February 2004
Opposite Zimbabwe at Harare Sports Club, Harare on 29 August 2005
Opposite Sri Lanka at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali on 28 October 2005
Opposite Sri Lanka at IPCL Sports Complex Ground, Vadodara on 12 November 2005
Opposite South Africa at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore on 19 November 2005
Opposite Pakistan at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi on 11 February 2006
Opposite Sri Lanka at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy on 4 August 2012
T20I Awards
Man of the Match Awards
Opposite Pakistan at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg on 24 September 2007
Opposite Sri Lanka at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, Kandy on 7 August 2012
Early career
Pathan started his career as a left-arm fast-medium swing bowler, Pathan broke into the national team soon after turning 19, and evoked comparisons with Pakistan's Wasim Akram, regarded as one of the finest left-arm pacemen of all time, with his promising performances and prodigious swing. He cemented his position in the team and was named by the International Cricket Council as the 2004 Emerging Player of the Year. In late-2004 he took 18 wickets in two Tests against Bangladesh, but the start of 2005 he performed poorly and conceded runs at a high rate, leading to a brief exile from the one-day international (ODI) team.
In 2006, Pathan became the only bowler to take a Test hat-trick in the first over of the match. However, the productive run did not last and after the start of 2006, Pathan began to steadily lose pace and swing, and his wicket-taking dwindled. Although Pathan's batting continued to be productive, he was not regarded as a specialist and was dropped from the team in both Tests and ODIs by the end of 2006, and by 2007 was no longer in the squad.
Test and ODI Debut
Irfan Pathan began his Test Cricket career with a Test match against Australia played at Adelaide Oval in the year 2003, when he was 19 years of age. He didn’t fare quite well at the match though, claiming a single wicket of Matthew Hayden, and giving away 160 runs in the match. His One Day International (ODI) debut was made with a match against Australia in the Tri-Nation One Day International (ODI) Cricket tournament comprising of India, Australia and Zimbabwe in the year 2004. In the match, he took now wicket and gave away 61 runs.
Beginning of the year 2005 didn’t prove to be very good for Pathan, as on the grounds of poor performance he was dropped out of the team, although he was called back in the team for the Indian Oil Cup held in Sri Lanka in August 2005, wherein he grabbed 6 wickets. After this, he gave is best ODI performance in a match against Zimbabwe in the Videocon Triangular Series, in which he took 5 wickets and gave only 27 runs
In 2001-2003
Irfan made his first-class debut against Bengal in March 2001, after fellow left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan was selected for the national team. He scored 13 not out and 2, and took 3/40 and 2/68 in a 222-run win. However, he was unable to repeat this form in the three remaining matches, taking only two more wickets in total, but Baroda nevertheless managed to win the 'Ranji Trophy'. He ended his maiden season with seven wickets at 43.28 and 75 runs at 12.50 with a best score of 40 not out against Orissa. In early-2002, he was selected for the Under-19 Cricket World Cup in New Zealand, where he took six wickets at 27.50 and scored 30 runs at 15.00, taking 2/18 in a win over South Africa.
In 2003 he was selected for the India A team which travelled to England. Playing in five first-class matches, Pathan took nine wickets at 43.77, including 4/60 against Yorkshire and 3/83 against South Africa. He managed only 8 runs at 4.00 with the bat. He had more success in the limited-overs matches, taking eight wickets at 11.12 in three matches, including a 4/19 against Lancashire, and scoring 27 runs at 27.00. In the same year, he was selected for the India Under-19 team to compete in an Asian youth ODI competition in Pakistan, where he was the leading bowler with 18 wickets at 7.38, with an economy rate of 3.54.
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