Irfan Pathan shared the story of how he was dropped from the Indian team during MS Dhoni’s captaincy.
Irfan Pathan Opens Up on His Sudden ODI Exit and MS Dhoni’s Role
When Irfan Pathan burst onto the international scene, expectations were immense. At just 19, he made his Test debut in Australia, impressing with his aggression, swing, and accuracy. Within a year, he was drafted into India’s ODI squad and became a regular across formats, even playing in India’s first-ever T20I in 2006 against South Africa.
However, in 2009, Irfan’s promising trajectory took a sharp turn. Having already been dropped from the Test side, he faced another setback when he was excluded from the ODI squad after a series against Sri Lanka. The blow was severe, keeping him away from the format for three years at a time when ODIs were highly prioritized over T20Is.
By the time he was recalled in 2012, India’s fast-bowling landscape had changed. New contenders like Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma had cemented their spots, making competition fierce. Irfan played just 12 more ODIs before his international career gradually wound down, ending with his retirement in 2020.
Five years after retiring, Irfan Pathan finally revealed the circumstances behind his exit. In a conversation with TheLallantop, he detailed the reasoning given for his omission and how then-captain MS Dhoni made the decision. “It was back in 2009, in New Zealand. Before that, my brother Yusuf and I had won matches in Sri Lanka. We needed 60 runs from 27–28 balls and pulled it off. If it had been anyone else, they wouldn’t have been dropped for a year,” Irfan recalled.
Gary’s two reasons
Irfan Pathan opened up about how then-coach Gary Kirsten clarified that his exclusion from the ODI squad involved MS Dhoni’s decision as captain. “Kirsten gave me two reasons. He said, ‘There are things that are not in my hand.’ Those were Gary’s exact words. I asked whose hands it was in, but he didn’t tell me. I already knew whose hands it was in. The playing XI is decided by the captain’s choice. The decision rests with the captain, coach, and management. Dhoni was the captain at that time. I won’t get into whether that decision was right or wrong, because every captain has the right to run the team in his own way,” Irfan Pathan explained.
He also noted the team’s preference for a batting all-rounder at No. 7: “The second answer was that they were looking for a batting all-rounder at No. 7. Fair enough — my brother was a batting all-rounder, while I was a bowling all-rounder. The two were different from each other, but there was only room for one in the team. Nowadays, if you ask whether two all-rounders are needed, people would gladly take both.”