Could Irfan Pathan have played more for India in white-ball cricket?

Walking in to bat at 144-4 chasing World Giants’ 228-5 in the Legends League Cricket (LLC), Irfan was at his fiery best, reminding viewers once again of his much-debated evolution from a bowler to a pinch-hitting all-rounder in his prime. As he took on Ryan Sidebottom and Morne Morkel with gusto, the irony could not be ignored. With the Indian team currently struggling to find a seaming all-rounder to balance their XI following an injury to Hardik Pandya, here was a left-hander, still only 37, troubling batters with his swing and accuracy before going on to create magic with the willow.

Of the four matches that India Maharajas played in the tournament, Irfan featured in two, but he ensured to leave his mark on both occasions. Against Asia Lions, the Baroda player scored 21* in only ten deliveries and also picked up 2-22, while the next match saw him almost pull off an improbable run chase, falling for 56 in 21 deliveries. He also ended the night with neat bowling figures of 1-26.

It’s now been ten years since Irfan last played for the Men in Blue in any format, and while the performances of the last week do not carry the biggest weight – coming against ageing players who are no longer at the peak of their skills and fitness – it forces us to go back and analyse if the seamer was hard done by in the white-ball formats.

Irfan’s dream start in white-ball cricket

Irfan made his ODI debut in 2004 and had a sensational start, picking up a combined 79 wickets in his first two years. He bagged 47 scalps in his maiden year, the fourth-most by an India bowler in a calendar year. He raced to 50 ODI wickets in only 31 matches, and jumped to 100 in another 28 games, becoming the then-fastest India bowler to the feat.

His T20I career saw him taste similar success initially: in 2007, Irfan picked up 12 wickets in seven innings at an average of 15.25 and a strike rate of 13. Ten of his wickets came in the T20 World Cup, with his 3-16 in the final against Pakistan helping him win the Player of the Match award.

Around the same time, his batting started picking up as well. 2005 was Irfan’s best year with the bat, scoring runs at an average of nearing 35 at a strike rate of 88.86 in ODIs. From his debut till the end of 2007, Irfan scored 1,137 runs with five fifties and a strike rate of over 79. In wins, his batting average was 33.66, and though he did not have the same impact with the willow in the shortest format, here was a player who was touted to break records and star in innumerable wins for India in the upcoming years.

The start of an indifferent run

Pathan’s slump began from mid-2008, during the 2008 Asia Cup when he picked up only seven wickets at an average of 51.42. He was also unable to impress in the India A series against touring sides New Zealand and Australia, picking up four wickets. His indifferent showing meant that he did not play the first four games of the seven-match series against England at home, only getting a chance in the fifth game when India had already wrapped up the series. He conceded 57 in his 10 overs in that ODI and returned without a wicket to end the year with 21 scalps in 20 ODI outings.

Between 2009 and 2011, Irfan played a total of three ODIs, picking up six wickets, and turned out in six T20Is, all played in 2009, in which he grabbed four scalps. An extended knee injury, which he describes as the “worst phase of his career” threatened to put a premature end to his career before the brief renaissance of 2012.

In the CB series Down Under in 2012, Irfan played four games, making 96 runs with a high score of 47, and also picked up six wickets with best figures of 3-16. He was picked for the Asia Cup thereafter, and impressed in the very first game, ending with 4-32 against Sri Lanka. The performances led to his inclusion in the tour of Sri Lanka in July, and Irfan returned with yet another stellar show, contributing with both bat and ball. The fifth ODI gave glimpses of the Irfan of old: he first held one end up after India had collapsed to 213-6, scoring a sensible 29* in 28 deliveries to help the post to 294-7, and then rattled the Sri Lanka batting order with 5-61 to win a Player of the Match performance. Just when there were hopes of more to come, the journey ended abruptly, as Irfan did not play another ODI.

In T20Is in 2012, he batted in only two innings but regularly contributed with the ball, picking up 12 wickets at an average of 18.58. He conceded 30 or fewer runs in a match on six occasions, including all games of the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka that year. It mattered for little, though, as Irfan did not play for India again.

For while Pathan was back on the field in 2013, India had moved towards a newer crop of bowlers – Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar emerged on the scene and continued to be stellar performers for years. The all-rounders’ slot was still open until Hardik Pandya came in sealed his spot in 2016, with Jasprit Bumrah’s entry making the bowling attack even more complete. The very same year, Pathan was the highest wicket-taker in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, but Indian cricket seemed to have moved on.

Injuries came his way, including a knee problem towards the end of 2012, but aged just 27 at the time, there are reasons to believe that Irfan had more to offer. After announcing his retirement from all formats in 2020, Irfan had said, “People start their career at 27-28, mine ended when I was 27 and that is the only regret.”

With 301 international wickets, Irfan’s journey remains one of the biggest what-ifs in Indian cricket. It is difficult to suggest with certainty that the cricketer could have scaled bigger heights if he had been given a longer rope, and it can be argued that the team wanted to move on and back newer and fitter fast bowlers, but there was definitely more to achieve for Irfan. He had fought back from fitness and poor form to impress often in the past, with his showings in 2012, after an extended lean period, being the biggest evidence.

With such a massive pool of players in India, keeping your place at the top-most level can be extremely difficult. There are ready replacements available, and a slight diversion can be enough to leave you behind for good. In his prime, a fully-fit Pathan would have been an asset to this Indian side, but that door closed a decade ago, never to open again.