Irfan Pathan revealed that it was actually Sachin Tendulkar who thought of this idea. It was in 2005 in an ODI against Sri Lanka in Nagpur when Irfan Pathan batted at No.3 for the first time. The southpaw scored a 70-ball 83 as the Indian cricket team scored 350/6 in their stipulated 50 overs.
It was widely assumed that Chappell promoted the all-rounder up the batting order to distract him from his bowling. When quizzed about the same, Irfan said that Chappell became a punching bag due to his controversial reign as the head coach of the Indian cricket team from 2005 to 2007.
Indian cricket team and Irfan Pathan: A love story that didn’t blossom enough
Irfan Pathan had once been the fastest to 100 ODI wickets, accomplishing that feat in 59 matches. But, after he started batting up the order, Irfan dismissed only 73 batsmen in the next 61 matches.
And, rather shockingly, his career came to an abrupt end with his last limited-overs appearance coming in a T20I against South Africa in October 2012.
The all-rounder represented the Indian cricket team in 29 Tests, 120 ODIs and 24 T20Is.
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