Irfan Pathan has looked back at his career and said he could have become India’s greatest all-rounder in ODIs had he received more support from his team-mates.

Pathan broke through to the Indian set up, making his debut in 2003, and went on to claim 100 Test wickets in just 29 matches, scoring 1,105 runs in those matches as well. He was equally effective in ODIs, scoring 1,544 and taking 173 wickets in 120 matches.

However, having made his debut as a 19-year-old, in which he was, at times, considered the successor to Kapil Dev in India’s search for a truly great all-rounder, a spate of injuries meant he didn’t play a Test after 2008, and his international career came to an end 2012, when he was just 27.

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“In terms of achievement, there could have been a lot more,” Pathan told Rediff.com. “I really believe that in one-day internationals, I could have been the best all-rounder that India ever produced, I could have been. That didn’t happen because I didn’t play as much cricket as I could have because my last game for India was at the age of 27.

“If you play till 35, things would have been better, but that’s gone, it’s done and dusted. Whatever matches I played, I played as a match-winner, I played as a guy who made the difference to the team. Even if I took one wicket – the first wicket for the match – that made a big impact on the team. Whatever innings I played with the bat, I played to make a difference.”

Pathan also suggested his changing roles in the team – from strike bowler to first change – should be taken into account when looking at his numbers, and said his team-mates could have done more to project that.

“If you see the first 59 ODI matches that I played, I got to bowl with the new ball. And when you are the new ball bowler, you get the opportunity to bowl with the new ball as well as the old ball,” he said. “Your aim, your mindset, your body language and your responsibility is to take wickets. But when you are bowling first change, your role changes as well, your role becomes defensive.

“When you are bowling first change, when you are a defensive bowler according to your captain and coach, you have to play the role of containing the runs. You have to make sure that you don’t give away too many runs. So, if your role becomes different, then your numbers also become different as well.

“I actually feel that people from the team should have spoken about it. They should have said that, ‘Yes, Irfan used to take wickets, but now we have given him a different role. We have given him the role of first change bowler and someone who can bat at No 7 or No 8, which is very much required in one-day cricket right now.’”

Pathan pointed to his last ODI, a clash against Sri Lanka in Pallekele, as example. “If you look at the numbers, it suddenly started changing when I started bowling with the new ball again in 2012,” Pathan said.

“When I came back into the Indian team, I took five wickets [5-61] as well in my last match. I am not saying that I could only bowl with the new ball. No, I was ready to bowl with the old ball, I was ready to bowl with the new ball as well. But in a team game, when you have a different role, your numbers reflect differently.”

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