Irfan Pathan

Full name: Irfan Khan Pathan
Nickname: Guddu
Born: October 27, 1984, Baroda, Gujarat
Major teams: India, Baroda, Middlesex
Relations: Brother - YK Pathan

Batting style: Left-hand bat
Bowling style: Left-arm medium-fast

Test debut: India v Australia at Adelaide - Dec 12-16, 2003

ODI debut: India v Australia at Melbourne - Jan 9, 2004

Twenty20 debut: India v South Africa at Johannesburg - Dec 1, 2006

2004 - ICC Emerging Player of the Year 2004

PROFILE
Irfan Pathan was born to an impoverished father who served as a muezzin in a local mosque. Thus Irfan and his brother spent most of their childhood days in the mosque corridors. Irfan Pathan's parents wanted their sons to be Islamic scholars but the two brothers took more interest in cricket. Slowly and steadily Irfan developed his bowling skills. Irfan practiced for more than six hours daily to sharpen his cricketing skills. Soon under the guidance and supervision of the former Indian captain, Datta Gaekwad, Pathan was selected in the under-14 Baroda team.

Pathan, who rejoiced watching Wasim Akram bowling, made his first class debut at the age of 16 in the 2000-01 season. Soon in the year 2002 he was selected for the Under 19 world cup to be held New Zealand. His haul of 18 wickets in the U-19 Asian tournament got him selection in the national team. Pathan debut games in both the versions of the game were not so good but he came back strongly in both the versions. He earned his first man of the match award in his first ODI series only against Zimbabwe at Perth. After such a glorious start to the carrer, Pathan just blew away to new heights.

Before the team's departure to Pakistan in 2004, Javed Miandad commented that bowlers like Irfan could be found in every street of Pakistan. Pathan soon proved that Miandad had made a mistake as he ended the series as one of the top wicket-taker and helped India to secure its first series victory over Pakistan in two decades. Irfan's regular performances also earned him the prestigious award of the ICC Emerging Player of the Year 2004

Greg Chappel, who took over as the new team coach in 2005, saw Irfan as the the best allrounder in India's cricket history after Kapil Dev. He sparkled Irfan's batting skills and Irfan also showed results. His 83 vs Sri Lanka is one of his memorable innings. Since then Irfan has batted at all positions from opening slot to ninth down. But to his and our dismay, Irfan's form and pace, both have dropped since then. During 2006, for most of the time, he has remained out of the national team due to poor form. In December 2006, he became the first player to be sent back from a foreign tour when he was sent back from the tour of South Africa to find his form. Besides all this Pathan has been selected in the world cup 2007 squad owing to his past form and reputation.
View Irfan's stats at http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/india/content/player/32685.html