Irfan Pathan's performance against Pakistan was always specialImage Credit source: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Former Team India all-rounder Irfan Pathan is often in the news due to his posts and comments on social media. Especially when the Indian team defeats Pakistan in a World Cup or Asia Cup match, or the Afghanistan team also registers a victory over Pakistan, then Irfan does not miss the opportunity to taunt. Obviously, like every Indian cricketer and cricket fan, he is happy on the victory of Team India, but his relations with Pakistan are like this and there is a special reason for it too. Let us tell you about this special reason on Irfan's birthday.

Irfan Pathan turned 41 on 27 October. The career of this stylish left-handed all-rounder, who played 173 international matches for Team India, did not last long, but whenever it came to his performance against Pakistan, Irfan definitely did something special. One reason for this was his ability but there was another reason too, which perhaps inspired Irfan more.

When asked as a street bowler, Irfan replied

Actually, this incident is from the initial days of Irfan Pathan's career. Coming from Baroda, Irfan started his international career with the 2003-04 tour of Australia. In the Test series against Australia and then in the three-nation ODI series, Irfan made a big impression with his fast bowling, especially swing with speed, and caught the attention of the cricket world. After this series, his place in the team was confirmed and then everyone was waiting for the Pakistan tour, which was happening after many years.

Team India had gone on Pakistan tour in 2004 itself to play ODI and Test series and at that time Pathan was very popular. Everyone was calling him a big threat to Pakistan. But at that time, the coach of Pakistan team was former legendary batsman Javed Miandad, who was also notorious for his loudness. He showed just this arrogance before the series, when while talking to the media, he made fun of Irfan and said that bowlers like him can be found in the streets of Pakistan.

This statement of Miandad could not last long because Irfan again showed his power in Pakistan. The left arm bowler played 3 matches in the ODI series and took 8 wickets in them. After this, Irfan took 12 wickets and contributed 54 runs in 3 matches of the Test series. Even after this, Irfan's magic continued against Pakistan and again in 2006, on the Pakistan tour, he created history by taking a hat-trick in the very first over of the Karachi Test. He became the only bowler in Test cricket to take a hat-trick in the first over of a match.

Always wreaked havoc on Pakistan

Apart from this, Irfan troubled Pakistan a lot and his most memorable performance came in the T20 World Cup 2007. In the very first match of this World Cup, Irfan had contributed by taking 2 wickets against Pakistan. Then in the final he proved to be a disaster for Pakistan. He took 3 big wickets for just 16 runs in the title match and made Team India the champion, while himself became the player of the match in the final.

Overall, Irfan always performed well against Pakistan. Irfan scored 385 runs in 10 test matches against Pakistan, which included the only century of his career. He also took 27 wickets. Talking about ODI, the Indian all-rounder scored 399 runs in 23 matches and also took 34 wickets against this team. Whereas in just 3 T20 matches, Irfan took 6 wickets against Pakistan.

Irfan Pathan's international career was like this

Irfan, who entered international cricket at the age of just 19, did not have a long career and he played his last match for India in 2012. But during this period he gave many memorable performances. Talking about Irfan's career, he scored 1105 runs and 100 wickets in 29 test matches. In ODI cricket, Irfan contributed 173 wickets along with 1544 runs in 120 matches. Similarly, in 24 matches of T20 cricket, he scored 172 runs and also took 28 wickets.