Twitter Reactions: Irfan Pathan calls time on his cricketing career

India all-rounder Irfan Pathan announced retirement from all forms of the game on Saturday. He last played for India back in 2012 in the World T20 against South Africa in Sri Lanka. However, he continued contributing to his state team Baroda in the domestic cricket before his shifting his base to Jammu & Kashmir where he took up a dual role of mentor and player.

Despite the fact that Irfan fell out of favour post-2012 across all formats, the left-arm pacer gave Indian fans a lot of memories to cherish with his performances. His exceptional yorker to Adam Gilchrist during 2003-04 Australia tour, his Man of the Match performance against Pakistan in 2007 and the most important one, a hat-trick against Pakistan in Karachi in 2006, these moments are still talked about fondly.

Irfan ended with 301 international wickets

Irfan Pathan, who deserved more international caps, played 29 Tests, 120 ODIs and 24 T20 Internationals for India and picked 301 wickets at the highest level. Irfan stunned many with his batting prowess as well and at times batted at the top of the order when he was at the peak of his career. Rather, when Greg Chappell was India’s head coach, the southpaw also opened the innings in a few matches and impressed many.

Injuries and dip in bowling form hampered Irfan Pathan’s career but he never gave up and made a stellar comeback. However, after the World T20 in 2012, he was dropped and never picked. He was the highest wicket-taker in the 2015-16 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy which had harboured chances of his comeback with the World T20 in India approaching.

Irfan had picked 17 wickets in 10 innings at an average of 15.76 and an economy of 7.30. He had also scored 200 runs at a strike-rate of around 152 performing the role of a finisher for Baroda. However, he wasn’t picked in the India squad for the tournament and this is where the man realised that his comeback to the national team wasn’t possible.

Nevertheless, he still contributed to the Indian cricket a lot with his performances during his illustrious career and has called it quits with no regrets and with his head held high. Soon after he announced his retirement, Twitterati flooded in its messages for Irfan Pathan on social media wishing him a happy retirement.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: