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
After his batting displays in Perth, Pathan was promoted to open the batting in the Fourth Test in Adelaide, replacing the struggling Wasim Jaffer and thereby allowing Harbhajan to return in a five-bowler attack. In a high-scoring match, Pathan took 3/112, but he struggled with the responsibility of opening, scoring nine and a duck. In a high-scoring match, he took 3/112 in Australia's 563.Following the Test series, he top-scored with 26 as India were skittles for 74 in the one-off T20 international. Pathan held his place in the ODI team and played all 10 matches in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy, scoring 118 runs at 19.66 mostly in the lower order and taking 11 wickets at 34.27 at an economy rate of 5.49. His best performance was a 4/41 against Australia at Adelaide to help restrict the hosts to 203 but India then collapsed to a 50-run loss. His top-score of 31 in the series came in partnership with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the closing stages of a successful and tense run-chase against Sri Lanka. Pathan struggled in the two finals against Australia, taking three wickets at 39.00 at an economy rate of 7.46 but his teammates did enough to ensure a 2–0 win.
An extra bowler backfired as the batsmen struggled. Pathan top-scored with 21* in India's first innings of 76 on the first morning and was again unbeaten in the second innings with 43. However, he failed to take a wicket and conceded 85 runs in only 21.2 overs in an innings defeat, and was omitted from the next Test. After the South Africa series, Pathan participated in the 2008 Indian Premier League, having been purchased by the Kings XI Punjab.