Chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar has asked Pathan to play in the remaining two rounds of the four-day Ranji Trophy cricket tournament.
DURBAN: Pace bowler Irfan Pathan has been booked on a flight back home from South Africa. This is perhaps the first time that a player has been released from an Indian touring party for lack of form.
The announcement was made by captain Rahul Dravid ahead of the crucial second Test at Kingsmead, Durban. “We don’t see Irfan playing a part for us in this series,” Dravid said.
But the move does not sound the death knell for Pathan. Dravid underlined the bowler’s long-term importance to the side for the World Cup and beyond, saying, “He’s not getting as much cricket as we had hoped in this series. We’ve discussed it with Irfan, the coaching staff, and the chairman of selectors. And we feel it is in Irfan’s best interests that he goes back and plays the Ranji Trophy games on January 2 and 10 before the start of the one-day series in India.”
The decision was firmed up in consultation with chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar and his committee members back in India, and after intimating the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
“It was a team management decision,” board secretary Niranjan Shah said. “We are okay with it. Dilip consulted his colleagues and informed me before taking the decision.”
The left-arm pace bowler played three of the four One-Day Internationals on this tour, taking one wicket from 21 overs and conceding 136 runs. Excluded from the first Test, the 22-year-old’s woes were only accentuated in the two-day warm-up game at Durban, where he went for 74 runs from 11 overs against a local invitational side.
The performance was just not good enough, especially when Munaf Patel, in his bid to prove his fitness, impressed with his accuracy and penetration in the same game. In fact, that has given the team adequate cover, said Dravid, for it to not need a replacement for Pathan. “Munaf has recovered really well, so we have that cover in terms of a medium-pace back-up,” he said.
Vengsarkar summed up the reasoning behind the decision: “Performance and fitness are very important for us. He is not in the best of form. That is why we thought he should go back and play domestic cricket. Sitting here is not going to help him.”
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