Irfan Pathan
Pathan was born 27 October 1984 in Baroda, Gujarat, India and is of Pashtun (Pathan) ancestry, belonging to the Pathan community in Gujarat. He grew up with his elder brother Yusuf in a mosque in Vadodara, in an impoverished family. His father served as the muezzin. Although their parents wished them to become Islamic scholars, Pathan and his brother took an interest in cricket. Their games on the grounds off and inside the mosque often necessitated apologies from their father to Muslim worshippers who visited it. In the beginning his deliveries did not reach the other end of the cricket pitch, but rigorous six-hour training sessions in blazing heat and his family's sense of discipline saw him progress steadily.
Irfan Pathan
Returning to India, Pathan then represented his country at the highest level for the first time on home soil. Pathan continued to improve his batting with a defiant 31 and 55 against Australia in October 2004 in the First Test in Bangalore. This was his first half-century in Tests, and was scored after the specialist batsmen had failed. Nevertheless, he managed a total of only 2/100 and India fell to a 217-run loss. Pathan's career was put on hold after he suffered a side strain in the following Test in Chennai, in which he totalled 0/68, causing him to miss the Tests in Nagpur and Mumbai. Australia went on to take the series 2–1 and Pathan ended with two wickets at 84.00 and 100 runs at 33.33. After being overlooked for the First Test with selectors opting for three spinners, he returned in the Second Test against South Africa in Kolkata, aggregating 3/89 and scoring 24 in an eight-wicket win that sealed a 1–0 series win.