One of the finest all-rounders India produced and someone who brought an amazing advantage to the team, Irfan Pathan has announced his retirement from the game on Saturday, January 4, 2020.

Pathan, who hails from Baroda, had made his India Test debut on the tour to Australia in 2003 in Adelaide at the age of 19 and made an immediate impact with his ability to swing the ball both ways, prodigiously and his knack of scoring runs with the bat as well. He played a big role in India’s 2007 World T20 win and was a vital cog in the team until form and Greg Chappell happened to him.

Pathan was a bowler who could bat a bit, but Greg Chappell during his tenure as India coach, wanted to make him into a batting all-rounder and though his batting got better, his main job of bowling got worse and he lost his ability to swing the ball.

This started a downfall in his career, from which he failed to recover and never quite fulfilled the promise he showed in his initial years, as a true option to become the next Kapil Dev.

He picked 301 wickets and scored 2821 runs in 173 international matches for India with one century in Tests. His finest moment came in 2006 Karachi Test against Pakistan when he became the first and only bowler till now to take a hat-trick in the first over of a Test match when he removed Salman Butt, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf in consecutive balls.

He played in IPL for various franchises with his initial stint with Kings XI Punjab being the most profitable for the all-rounder. He last played for India in the 2012 World T20 in Sri Lanka and since had transitioned into coaching roles, currently mentoring the Jammu and Kashmir Ranji team.

Pathan announced his decision to retire on official broadcasters of India’s international and domestic matches, Star Sports in a show named, “Live Farewell Irfan: The Swing King”.  Irfan called time on his career in all forms of the game and thanked his family, his coach, the teammates and especially his fans, who were with him for his journey.