Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan 

Full Name: Irfan Khan Pathan  
Born: 27 October 1984, Baroda, Gujarat  
Major Teams: Baroda, India.  

Batting Style: Left Hand Bat 
Bowling Style: Left Arm Medium Fast 
Irfan Pathan Jnr - his namesake is also a left-arm seamer for Baroda - is India’s youngest pace-bowling hope. At 18, he has already established himself as part of arguably the most incisive pace trio in the country, alongside Zaheer Khan and Rakesh Patel; served consistently as spearhead of the national under-19 team; and finds himself regularly selected for the India A team. Tall, and well filled out for his age, Irfan does most of his work off the seam at a useful pace off a side-on action, and his left-handedness marks him out a natural danger to the right-hander. Like Zaheer, one of his two idols – Wasim Akram, naturally, is the other – Irfan has refined his raw ability at the Dennis Lillee-assisted MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai. In another two years, this boy could be a star
Historic hat-trick for Pathan 
India left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan (5-61) took a hat-trick in the first over, the first bowler to do so in the Test cricket history in first over of the third and final Test against Pakistan on Sunday. Pathan had Salman Butt caught at first slip by Rahul Dravid with a sharp outswinger, trapped captain Younis Khan LBW with a sharp inswinger and bowled Mohammad Yousuf with another big inswinger to leave Pakistan reeling on nought for three. Pathan took wickets with his fourth, fifth and sixth balls to complete the 36th hat-trick in Test cricket history. 
Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is the only other India bowler to take a Test hat-trick, against Australia at Kolkatta in 2000-01. The 21-year-old Pathan had his victims beaten by the swing as well as seam movement extracted from the pitch. The left-armer is the 33rd bowler to record this feat in Test cricket. It is the 36th occasion that a bowler had taken three wickets off successive balls in the longer version of the game. Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, Australians Hugh Trumble and Jimmy Matthews have taken two hat-tricks in Test cricket. 
Irfan Pathan's hometown -- Baroda -- erupted with joy when the local lad became only the second Indian to claim a Test hat-trick on Sunday. "Pathan has really done us proud and I wish him all the best and hope he takes more and more wickets and sets greater targets and achieves more," selection committee chairman and secretary of Baroda Cricket Association Kiran More said.  
Pathan's mother Shamimbanoo said that all family members, relatives and friends were very happy that he got this achievement on Pakistani soil and "as Indians we feel proud for it". She added: "Irfan has really made all Indians proud and that makes us happy." Shamimbanoo said that Irfan used to be in touch with them regularly and "we were very confident that he would get us on his own and caught us by surprise". 
Mehbubkhan, Irfan's father, said that the entire family were praying to Allah that their son achieved something great which would ramain in everyone's memory forever. His sister Shagufa said: "After his failure in getting wickets in Lahore and Faislabad tests on dead pitches, we all were sure about his sucess in Karachi Test." Pathan's local coach Mehndi Shaikh said that the paceman had bowled with a lot of heart and soul and "I am very happy and glad that he showed both maturity and fire during his spell".

He has taken 5 wickets in an innings six times in Test cricket, and once in one-day internationals, against Zimbabwe in the 2005 Videocon Tri-Series. His spell in the final match against Pakistan in the 2004 tour was arguably his best performance in ODI cricket. His trademark weapon is an inswinger which darts into a right-hand batsman, and he also has the ability to reverse swing the old ball. In the ODI format, Pathan has been particularly impressive, frequently giving India early breakthroughs. He now consistently ranks in or near the top 10 of the LG ICC cricket ratings. 

He is developing into an all-rounder, as part of a reallocation of responsibilities under the new Indian cricket coach Greg Chappell. Chappell has identified potential in Pathan's batting. Pathan has recently been used as both an opener and a top order batsman in late 2005 in one-day cricket, making 83 runs at more than a run a ball against Sri Lanka in a Test match. He also proved his enhanced batting skills by scoring 82 and 93 against Sri Lanka, opening the batting in the December 2005 New Delhi Test, when regular opener Virender Sehwag was hospitalised with illness. He scores primarily in front of the wicket, his main strength being his ability to drive. He has shown his batting strength against Pakistan (India's traditional rival) by hitting 90 in the second Test in Faisalabad (21-25 January, 2006).