Should MS Dhoni back Irfan Pathan? History suggests so.

“Dhoni doesn’t want Irfan in the team”.

This is the common line-up echoed every time by Indian fans whenever Irfan Pathan was ignored after the spat Dhoni had with selectors over the discussion over Irfan and RP Singh three years ago.

The whole cricket fraternity in India are buzzed about Irfan Pathan’s comeback after Praveen Kumar fell to injury before the start of the Australian tour. Irfan was selected for the last two ODIs against West Indies much against everybody’s expectations, but it was Mithun who was given the license for the Australian tour as a replacement for Praveen. To add more curtains to his hopes, Irfan was again ignored when Vinay Kumar was selected for the injured Varun Aaron a few days later.

Not many remember the 2003-04 and 2007-08 Border-Gavaskar series in Australia, where two men made tremendous comebacks beyond anybody’s expectations. In the first timeline mentioned, it was Anil Kumble and later it was none other then Virender Sehwag. Many people might wonder what I am linking with these two players? There is something common that happened in those two players’ cases and could have been the case of Irfan too.

Dhoni – "You can't push me, better push the selectors"

For the 2003-04 test series, Kumble was selected after a big fight in the selection meeting, the battle which was single-handedly won by Ganguly. It was later revealed by Ganguly himself, that it required to raise his voice higher and stronger to convince everyone about Kumble’s inclusion. He also added that everyone thought Kumble was finished and it is time to look at the future.

Whatever may be the reason for Ganguly’s belief, it turned out to be the best thing that happened for India. Kumble turned the tables upside down and was seen filling the wickets column in both home and away matches from that series onwards. Kumble was the highest wicket taker (24 wkts, 5 for in 1st innings of Adelaide match, 8 for and a 4 for in the Sydney match) in that 03-04 series and also ended up as the highest wicket taker for the year 2004(64 wkts, 15 better than the next and had six 5wkt hauls).

When the next tour to Australia came up, it was Kumble’s turn to show his faith. Out of nowhere, Sehwag was selected for the tour after he was not even featured in the probables list, which even surprised the captain of Australian team Ricky Ponting, “I must admit I didn’t think Sehwag would make the final touring party but he’s here and he had some successes against us last time”. Sehwag hadn’t been in great touch in the Ranji Trophy, with just 66 runs in five innings for Delhi but it was later revealed that Gambhir’s injury and his captain’s faith was instrumental in his selection.

Like Kumble, Sehwag went on to play a crucial role in India’s success in that tour and thereafter. He posted a superb opening stand with Wassim Jaffer on the hostile WACA pitch and followed it up with two crucial wickets to set up a historical win for India (also, Sehwag is the one who insisted Kumble to give Ishant Sharma another go at Ponting which would have been his 8th over at a stretch and the rest is all history). Sehwag scored his first and only 2nd innings century till date, as he notched up 286 runs at an avg of 71 (only bettered by Hayden) from four innings in that series.

Who knows, Irfan might turn the tables like Kumble and Sehwag did after they were backed by their captains. The gates for Irfan may still be open, considering the doubts over Ishant’s fitness. Dhoni has shown great qualities as a leader and it is wrong to criticize him for not backing Irfan on behalf of his own reasons. With the way Dhoni’s words about Indian pitches fall on deaf ears, it may not be surprising to know that his opinion during selections is not heard.

With the form Irfan is showing, the conditions in Australia and considering the Indian bowling strength, should Dhoni have backed Irfan like Dada did for Jumbo and Jumbo did for Sehwag? Is Irfan worthy enough for Dhoni to risk his captaincy against selectors?

What are your opinions?

(Edited by: Prthvir Solanki)