@ AP Photo/Gurinder Osan,File
Irfan Pathan who retired from International cricket 2 days ago had said that Greg Chappell had nothing to do with his decline as a bowler. Now, the coach himself has given a reply to that.
The former Indian coach who was not so popular among the Indian legends like Ganguly, Tendulkar, and Dravid during his coaching stint has praised Irfan Pathan and congratulated him on his glorious career.
“Irfan was happy to play whatever role the team required. He was both courageous and selfless. Irfan proved that he was a very capable all-rounder. Apart from what he did in limited-overs cricket, he very nearly scored a test century(93 vs Sri Lanka in Delhi). His swing bowling was very good, with the highlight for me being his hat-trick in the first over of a Test match against Pakistan in Karachi”.
Irfan Pathan when made his international debut in the year 2003, was seen as the next big thing in Indian Cricket. He was genuine fast bowling all-rounder which gave relief to millions of Indian fans and team management as fast bowling all-rounders are eccentric in India even now. He lived up to his expectations with both the bat and the ball. He made the new ball talk with his upright action by swinging the ball into the right-hand batsmen and taking the ball away for the left-handers. Unfortunately, he couldn’t prolong his career as his career was hampered by continuous injuries and he never looked the same once he got hit by injuries.
Irfan Pathan played a vital role in India’s 2007 T20 world cup triumph in which he consistently performed with both the bat and the ball and for his match-defining spell of 4 overs for 16 runs and 3 wickets, he was adjudged the man of the match.
The veteran all-rounder has played over 150 international games for India across formats and picked up over 300 wickets to go with 2700 runs.