Irfan Pathan Announces Retirement From All Cricket Years After His Debut
Irfan Pathan announces retirement from all cricket, 16 years after his debut
The left-arm pace-bowling all-rounder Irfan Pathan had last played a competitive match on February 27 last year in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy turning up for Jammu & Kashmir.
All-rounder Irfan Pathan has announced his retirement from all forms of cricket aged 35, 16 years after making his international debut. "I'll keep contributing to Indian cricket, but it's always better if someone else takes my place in domestic cricket," he said.
Pathan, only cricketer to take a hat-trick in Test's first over, took 301 international wickets in 173 matches. He was no mug with the bat either and amassed 1105 runs in 40 Test innings at a decent average of 31.57 (with six fifties and 1 hundred). In the 50-over format, Pathan scored 1544 runs, at times batting at the top of the order, with five half-centuries to his name.
The left-arm pace-bowling all-rounder last played a competitive match on February 27 last year in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy turning up for Jammu & Kashmir. He returned with the figures of 2/32 with the ball and scored 10 runs in the game.
Though Irfan Pathan hasn’t played any 50-over World Cup game, he was part of India’s triumph in the inaugural World T20 in 2007. Rather, he was the Man of the Match in the final against Pakistan where he picked three wickets for just 16 runs in his four-over spell.
He is the only cricketer to take nine wickets in a Youth ODI. The 35-year-old is the only bowler to take a hat-trick in the first over of a Test. Irfan is the only Asian player to win a Man of the Match award in a Test at WACA, Perth.
