India all-rounder Irfan Pathan announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on Saturday (January 4), bringing down the curtain on an impressive career.
Irfan burst onto the scene during India’s tour of Australia in 2003-04 as a 19-year-old. He went on to represent the country in 29 Tests (1105 runs and 100 wickets), 120 ODIs (1544 runs and 173 wickets) and 24 T20Is (172 runs and 28 wickets).
Playing against Pakistan brought the best out of Irfan. He took a Test hat-trick against the arch-rivals back in 2006 in Karachi and produced a Man-of-the-Match performance at the World T20 final in Johannesburg a year later.
Ever since the southpaw publicized his retirement decision, he is receiving heaps of praise for his contribution to Indian cricket. Former and current cricketers including Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav among others took to their social media accounts to give a fitting tribute to Irfan.
Amid a number of accolades, there was also a tribute tweet from Irfan's elder brother Yusuf Pathan.
Taking to Twitter, Yusuf shared an emotional note for his sibling which reads: “Jumma Masjid was the place where we started playing the game together with the utmost passion. We, later, shifted to Baroda Sports Club and emerged as U14 champions and went on to represent Baroda Cricket Association. Motibaug Cricket Club was very special for us where we continued our never give up attitude.”
Yusuf also pointed out that the most memorable moment with Irfan was winning the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa. He congratulated his younger brother for all the success and signed off the note with a message stating keep smiling.
