The coronavirus pandemic doesn’t seem to be going quickly and due to which cricketers are stuck at their respective homes. However, amid lockdown, they are regularly taking part in online chat sessions and sharing their opinions on various topics.
Following the trend, India cricketer Suresh Raina participated in a Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’ where he revealed the name of one Indian bowler who was directly compared with Pakistan legend Wasim Akram.
Raina took the name of former all-rounder Irfan Pathan and stated how people used to see Irfan as India’s own Akram. Raina said that Irfan’s swinging bowling and his long curly hair used to remind everyone of Akram.
“Everybody used to compare you (Irfan) with Wasim Akram. The long and curly hair, almost like the brand ambassador of head and shoulders. When I came into the Indian side in 2005, you were already such a big name, very famous,” said Raina.
Irfan had made his India debut at the age of 19 against Australia in 2002. After which he rose to success and became a regular in India’s side. In 2004, Irfan was picked for India’s tour of Pakistan under Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy. The left-armer impressed everybody as he earned six wickets in the first Test at Multan.
After the successful Pakistan tour, former Pakistani player Javed Miandad passed a remark on Irfan stating that the latter can be found in every street of Pakistan. The Gujarati bowler recalled the instance and said his father didn’t like what Miandad had claimed about his son.
“I remember Javed Miandad saying something like bowlers like Pathan are there in every street of Pakistan. My father, I remember, reading that news, he didn’t like it at all,” said Pathan.
In 2006, when India toured Pakistan again, Irfan registered his name in record books as he became the second India and the first medium pacer to take a hat-trick in Test cricket. Irfan had dismissed Salman Butt, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf in the third Test at Karachi to reach the milestone.
Irfan bid adieu to all forms of cricket last year. He finished his international career with 29 Tests, 120 ODIs and 24 T20Is, in which the left-armer bagged 100, 173, and 28 wickets respectively. When it comes to showing magic with the willow, Irfan has accumulated 1106 runs in Test, 1544 in ODIs and 172 in the shortest format.
