Personal Details and Early Life
Yusuf Pathan is an Indian cricketer, who is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler. His hard-hitting batting style has provided him with numerous memorable knocks both in domestic and international cricket. He has a brother, Irfan Pathan, who is a former Indian cricketer.
Yusuf was born on 17 November 1982 in Vadodara, Gujarat, he is the elder brother between Irfan and himself and they had a sister, Shagufta Pathan. The Pathan kids had a humble upbringing as their father served as a muezzin (a person who leads the call of prayer) in a mosque. Yusuf started playing cricket on the local streets and bylanes at a very young age. In the 1999-00 season, he was first picked for the Baroda U16 team for the Vijay Merchant Trophy and made his Ranji Trophy debut against Saurashtra in the 2001-02 season.
Career
Although the younger Pathan had already made it big on the International stage, Yusuf was still waiting for his big break. In 2007, following some good performances in the Deodhar Trophy, Yusuf was selected for the Indian World T20 squad in South Africa. He made his International debut in the final of the World T20 against Pakistan on 24 September 2007. However, due to his inconsistency, and his flamboyant approach often seen as suicidal, his good performances could not keep up with his failures. He was in and out of the national team at regular intervals. One of his most memorable performances in an Indian shirt in a T20 match came against Srilanka where Yusuf (22 off 10), along with brother Irfan (33 off 16) stitched a fantastic eighth-wicket partnership (59 off 25) to guide India past the finish line. In 22 T20I matches, Yusuf has scored 236 runs and picked up 13 wickets.
Yusuf had made his ODI debut for India against Pakistan in Dhaka on 10 June 2008 but he is yet to feature in a Test match. He was a member of the 2011 ICC World Cup-winning Indian team and had the honor of lifting the trophy even though he did not have a great World Cup. In 57 ODI matches, he has scored 810 runs including two centuries, and picked up 33 wickets.
Yusuf was signed by Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the inaugural Indian Premier League (IPL) season in 2008 for Rs. 1.9 Crore. He recorded the season’s fastest half-century (in 21 balls) and piled up 435 runs and took 8 wickets. RR won the IPL in 2008. In 2011, he was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and was retained by them in 2014. KKR won the IPL twice (2012, 2014) with Yusuf in their squad. In 2018, following a dip in form, he was released by KKR and bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). He played a few good knocks in the 2018 season including in the final but another dip in form saw him being released before the 2020 IPL season. In his 174 IPL matches, he has scored 3204 and picked up 42 wickets.
Achievements
●A two-time member of Cricinfo IPL XI (2008, 2016)
●Cricbuzz IPL XI (2016)
●Joint fastest fifty in the IPL (off 15 balls)
●Sixth-fastest century by an Indian and the second-fastest by an Indian outside the subcontinent (off 68 balls against South Africa in Pretoria)
●He has been a member of two World Cup-winning squads (2007 T20, 2011 ODI)
Personal Life
Through the course of Yusuf’s search for the right physiotherapist to help him with his injuries, he stumbled upon a certain Mumbai-born Physiotherapist called Afreen Khan, who was practicing in Baroda. Yusuf and Afreen fell in love and got married in March 2013. The couple was blessed with a baby boy, Ayaan, on 17th April 2014, when Yusuf was away playing in the IPL.
