Irfan Pathan Opens Up: It Was Sachin Tendulkar’s Idea To Promote Me As Batsman, Not Greg Chappell’s

Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan, who played all formats of the game, a bowling all-rounder recently revealed that it was Sachin Tendulkar who had a role play in making him bat at number 3 and not the former Indian coach Greg Chappell. 

Irfan discredited the theory that it was Greg Chappell’s idea to make him bat at no. 3, the real reason for the downfall of the cricketer. Pathan mentioned that India and Sir Lanka were playing their first match of the 2005 ODI series in Nagpur when Sachin Tendulkar advised Rahul Dravid to send him at number 3 as all-rounder.

Sachin advised that Irfan has the power to hit sixes, can play well with the new ball, and has the ability to manage fast bowlers. 

Irfan was tried for the first time at number 3 in that series when Muralitharwan was at his best. He is moved up on the order saw him scoring sparkling 83 runs off 70 balls as India made its way beating Sri Lanka by 152 runs.

Pathan then continued to bat in the top order more often and even opened the batting order for India several times. It was widely believed until now that playing on the top order took Irfan away from his form and was the reason for the decline of his International cricket career. 

Irfan mentioned in his statement to Raunak Kapoor presenter of “Beyond The Cricket Field” for his Instagram page that it is easier to blame Greg Chappell for the decline in his career as he is an Australian. He mentioned that Greg is not responsible for spoiling his career. He mentioned this post his retirement as well. 

Pathan stated that the actual reasons which harmed him the most were the lack of support he thought he should have received. He mentioned that after his injury, he never got a roadmap for making his return. 

Irfan has played on all the three formats of the game and was the part of the ICC World Twenty Twenty 2013 ICC Champions trophy. In his career he played 29 tests matches, 120 ODIs’ and 24 T20s, and has claimed over 100, 173, and 28 wickets in these formats. He scored 2821 runs with his bat across all the formats. 

Irfan Pathan announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, on 4 January 2020