Irfan Khan Pathan (Gujarati: ????? ????) ( pronunciation (help·info); born 27 October 1984) is an Indian cricketer who plays all formats of the game. He made his debut for India in the 2003/04 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and was a core member of the national team until a decline in form set in during 2006, forcing him out of the team. Since then, he has been in and out of the limited-overs teams (ODIs and T20Is), and has only sporadic appearances in Test cricket. Pathan played his last Test in April, 2008 at the age of 24.

Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan
Personal information
Full name	Irfan Khan Pathan
Born	(1984-10-27) 27 October 1984 (age 33) Vadodara, Gujarat, India
Nickname	Guddu,Irfan
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Batting	Left-hand bat
Bowling	Left arm medium fast
Role	All-rounder
Relations	Yusuf Pathan(brother)
International information
National side	India (2002-2012)
Test debut (cap 248)	12 December 2003 v Australia
Last Test	5 April 2008 v South Africa
ODI debut (cap 153)	9 January 2004 v Australia
Last ODI	4 August 2012 v Sri Lanka
ODI shirt no.	56
T20I debut (cap 7)	1 December 2006 v South Africa
Last T20I	2 October 2012 v South Africa
T20I shirt no.	56
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2000–2018	Baroda
2005	Middlesex
2008–2010	Kings XI Punjab
2011–2013	Delhi Daredevils (squad no. 56)
2014	Sunrisers Hyderabad (squad no. 56)
2015	Chennai Super Kings (squad no. 56)
2016	Rising Pune Supergiants (squad no. 28)
2017	Gujarat Lions (squad no. 56)
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC T20Is Matches 29 120 94 24 Runs scored 1,105 1,544 3,303 172 Batting average 31.89 23.39 31.45 24.57 100s/50s 1/9 0/5 2/18 0/0 Top score 102 83 121 33* Balls bowled 5884 5,855 18484 462 Wickets 100 173 338 28 Bowling average 32.26 29.72 28.55 22.07 5 wickets in innings 7 2 17 0 10 wickets in match 2 n/a 3 n/a Best bowling 7/59 5/27 7/35 3/16 Catches/stumpings 8/– 21/– 27/– 2/–
Source: Cricinfo, 1 October 2017

Beginning his career as a fast-medium swing and seam bowler, Pathan broke into the national team soon after turning 19, and evoked comparisons with Pakistan's Wasim Akram with his promising performances and prodigious swing. In early 2006, Pathan became the only bowler to take a Test hat-trick in the first over of the match (vs Pakistan at Karachi). 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 until return in 2007 World Twenty20.

Irfan Pathan, along with players such as Vinod Kambli and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, was included in the list of "India's lost boys" by Shashi Tharoor.

He cemented his position in the team and was named by the International Cricket Council as the 2004 Emerging Player of the Year. Pathan was instrumental in India's One-day international and Test series wins in Pakistan in 2004. He was described by the media as the "blue-eyed boy" of the Indian cricket. 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.

Immediately thereafter, Australian Greg Chappell, one of the leading batsmen of his time, became India's coach (2005) and identified Pathan's batting potential. Pathan improved his batting skills and tried to become a complete bowling all-rounder, and he opened the batting on occasions in ODIs and scored 93 in a Test match (10 Dec 2005, versus Sri Lanka in Delhi) in the role after an illness to Virender Sehwag. He made three scores beyond 80 in the space of four Test innings against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. For the first nine months of Chappell's stint at the helm, Pathan performed strongly with both bat and ball, scoring runs regularly and frequently taking top-order wickets. He rose to No. 2 in the ICC's ODI rankings for all-rounders and was also in the top five in the Test rankings. This led critics to compare him to former Indian pace bowling allrounder Kapil Dev.

He returned to international cricket in September 2007 for the inaugural World Twenty20, where he took three wickets and was man of the match as India beat Pakistan in the final. This earned him a recall into the ODI team, where he was a regular for most of the next 12 months before being dropped as his economy rate continued to trend upwards