We as Indian cricket fans have never witnessed or felt the air of invincibility like the West Indies of 70s or the Australian team of 2000s. We have had the best batsmen in the world, spinners who could win us matches single-handedly in India, but where we have always lacked is quality fast bowling. After the era of Sourav Ganguly began, we have seen some new age fast bowlers emerge but no one promised as much as Irfan Pathan.
We as a weak fast bowling team have always been in awe of bowlers who could produce great pace with big swing like Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. Cricket Experts all over the world questioned Indian Cricket about its inability to produce a quality fast bowler from a billion people. At last we had an answer, a fast bowler with pace and deadly swing just like the great Wasim Akram – Irfan Pathan had arrived.
Irfan was an instant superstar. He was like mountain water to a throat which has been thirsty for years. A bowler who we could boast off, show off. He bowled at the better side of 140 when he made his debut for India senior’s team at the age of just 19 years in 2003-04 in Australia and had that ever so fine left-armer in swing. It was not ordinary movement; he swung the ball in metres at that pace and was unplayable at times. India had a smile and tears of joy always when he would be bowling. We have got our Wasim Akram, was a general feeling amongst fans. He was a rage in 2004-05 and the icing on the cake was that he could bat as well. He was as genuine an all-rounder can ever get. We had our first world class fast bowling all-rounder after Kapil Dev. Indian fans were jubilant.
Irfan was a prodigee. Years before he made his international debut, he was being talked about a lot in the cricketing circles. He was selected for his Ranji team, Baroda in place of Zaheer Khan in 2001 as Zaheer had been called on to play for India and he impressed straightaway. He played for the India under19 team in the world cup in 2002 and became a sensation everywhere. His pace and swing had everyone impressed; the past and present crickets, selectors, commentators, viewers, everyone. Questions about him promotion to the senior team had started midway of the under-19 world cup.
He showed a lot of promise in his debut tour in Australia where Adam Gilchrist in particular would remember him for bowling one of the best Yorkers ever bowled in cricket to dismiss Gilchrist. The next tour was a big one as India was touring Pakistan after more than 15 years and the world was watching. India vs Pakistan is always a test of character and nerves and Pathan passed with flying colurs. He was instrumental in the historic series wins for India in both test matches and ODIs. Pathan also holds the world record for taking a hat-trick in the first over of a test match, which he accomplished on India`s tour of Pakistan.
Pathan excelled in that season and was the best thing to happen to Indian cricket in a long time. He was taking wickets and scoring runs to help India win in crunch situations. Just as the year 2005 started to descend, so did the promise of Irfan Pathan. He was consistent with the bat but his bowling had taken a hit. The ball was not moving at all and the pace was not enough to beat the batsmen. Till the mid of 2006 Irfan Pathan was no longer a regular part of the side. A promise had been broken with a lot of hearts. He was the poster boy till a year back and now he wasn’t even worthy of a spot in the team.
He came back again to reignite the hopes once again in the inaugural T20 world cup in 2007 and returned victorious being named the man of the match in the semifinals and the finals both. Pathan had cut down on pace was more dependent on cutters instead of seam and was no longer the bowler he had arrived. He is seen in the IPL now but that too not as a regular member of the team. His sunrise was the brightest but the sunset came too soon. A talent that deceived to impress.