Irfan: why do we overlook this match-winner?

In their infinite wisdom, India's cricket selectors now assert that Irfan Pathan is not even among the top 30 ODI cricketers in India. Yet Irfan was Man of the Match in the final of the first T20I world championship (Sept 2007), and earned the same honour in one of India's most famous test victories -- at the WACA in Perth, traditional haven of fast bowlers and graveyard of visiting batsmen, sweeping India to victory with bat and ball in January 2008 and avenging the unjust loss in Sydney (where umpire Benson and Australian cheating had denied India victory). Yet, Irfan has played merely two tests for India since that spectacular performance; in one (against Australia) he shone with the ball (taking three wickets in the only innings) and in the other he top-scored in the first innings (21*) and was unbeaten in the next (43*), but was dropped -- and has never been picked again -- presumably for a rare bowling failure (0/85).

The selectors simply refuse to see Irfan as an allrounder, and drop him as soon as his bowling falters a bit. In this year's T20I world championship (or indeed in the IPL earlier), his bowling didn't even falter but he has been dropped forthwith yet again. Perhaps the most shocking decision of all was to drop Irfan after he scored a test century against Pakistan; he didn't play the first two tests in the next series (in Australia), came in for the third test (at the WACA) and was MoM for his five wickets plus important innings of 28 and 46. But he has only played two tests for India since. The simple fact is that Irfan Pathan is now a genuine all-rounder, a classic utility cricketer in the Shastri mould -- only better. Shastri had a career ODI strike-rate of 61.1 -- almost catastrophic. He had a test bowling average of 40.96 and a batting average of just over 35. In other words, he was a marginally better test batsman than Irfan has been until this point (with a test average of 31.6), although Irfan is certainly a more useful batsman in ODIs already than Shastri was through his career (notwithstanding the brilliance of 1985). Irfan's test and ODI batting averages are much lower than Shastri's, partly because Irfan was initially a genuine tail-ender and has only gradually been discovered as a batsman -- but as he showed in the IPL, he is a fine batsman now. His ODI strike-rate of near-78 also bears out his growing usefulness as a batsman. As a bowler, Irfan is far superior to Shastri, with a test bowling average of 32+ (8 runs/wicket less than Shastri), and and ODI bowling average of 29+ (no comparison with Shastri, whose ODI wickets cost 7 more runs on average for each wicket). Yet Shastri was an automatic selection for the India squad throughout his career, and was rarely out of the test or ODI XI, while Irfan is dropped without the slightest hesitation at the first sign of fragility in either his batting or bowling.

While Irfan's career test bowling average of 32.26 (for 100 test wickets in 29 tests) is just short of enough to earn a permanent place in the side as a pure bowler, it is certainly better than any other contemporary Indian pacer (including Zaheer Khan). And, what the selectors often forget is that Irfan is not merely a fine, consistent medium-pace bowler but also a superb, steadily-improving test batsman. Irfan has averaged 49.66 as a batsman in his last 5 test matches: can any batsman be dropped from any test side for such a record? In his last 12 test matches, Irfan has made 756 runs in 18 completed innings, for a batting average of 42. That is 7 runs per innings better than Shastri's career batting average, approximately the same as Ganguly's career average and a lot better than Yuvraj's. Irfan should be an automatic selection for the Indian test side as a batting all-rounder. His batting average of 42 in his last 12 tests should earn him a permanent slot as #6 in the test batting order -- and his bowling will add variety and depth. With a career test bowling average better than all his contemporaries, it is positively bizarre that Irfan Pathan isn't a permanent member of the test side.