Irfan Pathan Announces Retirement From All Forms of Cricket

Lucknow: Irfan Pathan, former Indian cricketer who played all formats of the game has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. He was termed as a bowling all rounder and was an important member of 2007 ICC World Twenty 20 winning squad of India.

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Irfan, 35, has played 29 Tests, 120 ODIs and 24 T20Is for India in an international career that spanned nearly nine years beginning 2003. Known for his ability to swing the ball sharply, Irfan picked 301 wickets across formats. He was a handy batsman too, making 1105 runs in Tests at an average above 31 and 1544 runs in ODIs at 23.39.

He last played for India in a T20I in October 2012.

Irfan burst into the scene in 2003 and soon had plenty of high points in his career. He dismissed Salman Butt, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf in the first over of the Karachi Test in 2006 to claim a Test hat-trick. He was the Man of the Match in the 2007 World T20 final against Pakistan for his spell of 3 for 16 which set up victory for the young Indian side.

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Irfan was also the Man of the Match in India's famous win in the Perth Test against Australia in 2008 for picking up five wickets along with handy contributions with the bat.

Injuries and a loss of swing meant Irfan struggled for consistency in the latter part of his career. He was in and out of the Indian side and had to be content with moving across IPL teams. He played the last of his 103 IPL matches in 2017.

Irfan moved from his domestic side Baroda to a player-cum-mentor role in Jammu and Kashmir in early 2018. He last played a competitive match in February last year, for J&K in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

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