'Playing XI is a captain's choice' - Irfan Pathan reveals why his international career was cut short

Published - 16 Aug 2025, 18:29 IST | Updated - 16 Aug 2025, 18:29 IST

Former cricketer Irfan Pathan was a blessing in disguise, as the Indian team lacked good pace-bowling all-rounders back in the day. He could open the bowling and bat at different positions, which made him a perfect inclusion in the side consistently between 2004 and 2009. However, the Baroda cricketer lost his place in the national side as new faces emerged.

Irfan said that he was dropped from the Indian team despite pulling off crucial performances and helping in team's best cause. The cricketer made a bold claim that performances like his wouldn't have allowed the selectors to drop anyone else for at least another year or so. He even tried to reach out to the then head coach Gary Kirsten over not picking him in the Playing XI, but the response wasn't satisfactory, he said.

"It was back in 2009 [that I was dropped], when we were in New Zealand. Before that, my brother (Yusuf Pathan) and I had won matches in Sri Lanka. The situation in which we had pulled a win – if it had been anyone else in our place, they wouldn’t have been dropped for a year. In that match against Sri Lanka, we needed 60 runs from just 27–28 balls, and we won it from there," he said during an interview with The Lallantop.

"In New Zealand, I was benched for the first match, the second match, and the third match as well. The fourth match was a draw because of rain. I wasn’t in the final match either. Then I asked Gary sir why I had been dropped. If there was something I needed to improve, he could tell me, but I wanted to know the reason I was left out," he added.

According to the 40-year-old, Kirsten told him that the decisions regarding picking the final combination or the squad wasn't entirely in his hands. And since the then skipper MS Dhoni had the final call in picking the final Playing XI, Irfan had to ultimately remain on the bench before being sidelined from the squad completely. Irfan was also told that the team required a batting all-rounder as against a bowling all-rounder, which did not sit well with him.

"Kirsten gave me two reasons. He said, ‘There are things that are not in my hand.’ Those were Gary’s exact words. I asked whose hands it was in, but he didn’t tell me. I already knew whose hands it was in. The playing XI is decided by the captain’s choice. I won’t get into whether that decision was right or wrong, because every captain has the right to run the team in his own way.

"The second answer was that they were looking for a batting all-rounder at No. 7. Fair enough, my brother was a batting all-rounder, while I was a bowling all-rounder. The two were different from each other, but there was only room for one in the team. Nowadays, if you ask whether two all-rounders are needed, people would gladly take both," Irfan concluded on the matter.

Notably, the former cricketer continued to toil hard in the domestic circuits and was given a long rope in 2012, but lack of above par performances meant that he ultimately had to lose his spot in the national side again. He was a part of the triumphant Champions Trophy 2013 squad, but didn't play a single game as Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav led the pace attack throughout the tournament.