On last Saturday (4th January), the 35-year-old Irfan Pathan announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Though he started the international career as a left-arm pacer who had the skill of impressive swing bowling, he evolved himself as an all-rounder at the later part of his career as the left-handed batsman also played crucial roles with his bat.
Irfan Pathan faced many ups and downs in his cricket career, but he never gave up. In his international career between 2003 and 2012, he suffered many injuries, but he still managed to provide some memorable performances.
Here we have come with some crucial stats of Irfan Pathan’s international career.
Irfan Pathan’s bowling stats in the international career
| Stats | Test | ODI | T20I |
| Matches | 29 | 120 | 24 |
| Innings | 54 | 118 | 23 |
| Wickets | 100 | 173 | 28 |
| Average | 32.26 | 29.72 | 22.07 |
| Economy rate | 3.28 | 5.26 | 8.02 |
| Strike rate | 58.8 | 33.8 | 16.5 |
| 4wk/5wk/10wk | 2/7/2 | 5/2/0 | 0/0/0 |
| Best bowling figures in an innings | 7/59 | 5/27 | 3/16 |
| Best bowling figures in a match | 12/126 | 5/27 | 3/16 |
Irfan Pathan’s yearly number of wickets in each international cricket format
Irfan Pathan’s batting stats in the international career
| Stats | Test | ODI | T20I |
| Matches | 29 | 120 | 24 |
| Innings | 40 | 87 | 14 |
| Runs scored | 1105 | 1544 | 172 |
| Average | 31.57 | 23.39 | 24.57 |
| Strike rate | 53.22 | 79.54 | 119.44 |
| 100s/50s | 1/6 | 0/5 | 0/0 |
| Highest score | 102 | 83 | 33* |
Irfan Pathan’s yearly total runs in each international cricket format
Irfan Pathan’s highest rankings in the international career
| Role | Test | ODI | T20I | |||
| Highest Ranking | Highest Rating | Highest Ranking | Highest Rating | Highest Ranking | Highest Rating | |
| Batting | 46 | 464 | 47 | 540 | 58 | 200 |
| Bowling | 9 | 761 | 2 | 772 | 7 | 575 |
| All-rounder | 3 | 317 | 3 | 413 | 9 | 102 |
Other special stats
i) Opened in batting and bowling in the same match in every format
In his international career, Irfan Pathan played multiple times as an opening batsman and opening bowler. But the biggest point was that he also played both those roles in all the three international formats. He did this in three Tests, only ODI and only T20I. He is the only Indian to open in batting and bowling in the same match in every format, while only two more non-Indian cricketers have also achieved this feat.
At first, he played both roles, as an opening batsman and opening bowler, during the Kolkata ODI against South Africa on 25th November 2005.
Later, he played the same roles in three Tests at Delhi (against Sri Lanka), Mumbai (against England) and Adelaide (against Australia) in December 2005, March 2006 and January 2008 respectively. Last time, he played this role during the Colombo (RPS) T20I match against England during the Group Stage of ICC World T20 2012 (23rd September 2012).
ii) Test Hat-trick
Irfan Pathan claimed his only international hat-trick during the Karachi Test against Pakistan in January 2006. In the very first over of that Test match, Irfan took three successive wickets of the opener Salman Butt (0), captain Younis Khan (0) and Mohammad Yousuf (0) during the last three balls of that over. He became the first Indian pacer and second Indian bowler (after Harbhajan Singh) to claim a Test hat-trick. However, he is still the only bowler to claim a hat-trick in the first over of a Test match.
iii) Former fastest Indian bowler to complete 100 ODI wickets
During the Abu Dhabi ODI against Pakistan on 19th April 2006, Irfan Pathan created a new record for India as he became the fastest Indian bowler to complete 100 ODI wickets. The left-arm pacer achieved this feat in 59 ODIs and broke the previous record of Zaheer Khan, who reached that milestone in 65 ODIs.
However, in last year (2019), Mohammed Shami (56 ODIs) and Jasprit Bumrah (57 ODIs) broke Irfan’s record of fastest 100 ODI wickets for India.
iv) The only bowler to claim nine wickets in a U19 ODI match
Irfan Pathan is still holding the record of best bowling figures in U19 ODI cricket history. On 4th November 2003, during the U19 Asia Cup match against Bangladesh U19 at Lahore, Irfan claimed the bowling figures of 7.5-3-16-9. His bowling helped to bundle out the opponent for just 34 runs.