Irfan Pathan made a terrific and memorable debut for India on the 2003-04 tour of Australia at the age of 19. He made a name for himself with his amazing swing bowling and ability to bat as well, raising the team’s hope of finding their next pure all-rounder.

However, Pathan revealed that he almost didn’t make it Australia, as Captain Sourav Ganguly had rejected his name during the meeting with selectors.

“Australia tour is really tough tour. When a 19-year-old player goes there, he gets a lot of beating. I remember Dada also told me after the tour was about to come to a close, that ‘Irfan you might not know, but I didn’t want you to come on the tour. I had rejected you in the selection meeting. Not because I had seen your bowling. But because I didn’t want to take a 19-year-old player in such a difficult tour to Australia. But when I saw you, I was sure that you would do well’,” Pathan said in an interview to SportsTak.

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He also revealed that he got a lot of backing from Ganguly during his captaincy tenure.

“Hence, throughout my career, Dada backed me a lot. One best thing about Dada was that if he likes a player, he would back him completely. If he feels that one player is giving his best for the team, he would back him. When a captain comes to a youngster and says this, you feel a lot of confidence. Then you also start respecting him a lot,” Pathan further said.

During the interview, Pathan revealed that Kapil Dev and Wasim Akram were his childhood idols and his conversations with Akram during Australia tour in 2003 helped him grow as a bowler.