Relatable Moments Where Irfan Pathan Acted Just Like an Indian Relative
Irfan Pathan is among the most active former Indian cricketers across social media platforms. This has even led to Pathan poking out at his teammates and even the new stars, making him look like a pure Indian relative.
Irfan Pathan has been one of the best pace all-rounders for the Indian cricket team. With his career lasting from 2003 to 2012, he made numerous achievements with the Indian cricket team and also became a part of the squad that won the T20 World Cup 2007 and the Champions Trophy 2013.
But ever since his last international appearance in 2012 and his retirement in 2020, Pathan became much more active across social media platforms. Twitter, a platform where several former players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Michael Vaughan, and many more share useful insights into the game and praise performances, Irfan Pathan also entered the list.
Since then, Irfan Pathan has been giving his insights to the game, but sometimes they go a lot off the mark. On a few occasions, he didn’t just share his views; he indirectly took a dig at the current players or his former teammates, which makes fans feel that he is a pure Indian relative to almost every Indian player.
Recently, he has been in the news for sharing some unknown things about the greatest Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. This is not just the only occasion where Irfan Pathan acted as a pure Indian relative; there have been a lot more, where he went against India’s legendary players.
MS Dhoni
The internet is now filled with Irfan Pathan going viral over the social media platforms, for his remark against former Indian captain, MS Dhoni. Irfan Pathan was dropped from the Indian team in 2008 and replaced by RP Singh. Although various fans thought the reason behind his being dropped could be his performance, he revealed a secret of Captain Cool.
Irfan Pathan previously had an interview with Vikrant Gupta (renowned Sports analyst), where he talked about the reason for his being dropped by Dhoni. He said that the main reason behind it was that he denied setting up a hookah for MS Dhoni. To make things escalate, he also said that Dhoni used to keep only those players in the team who made hookah for him.
Irfan Pathan has said in an interview given to Sports Tak that "MS Dhoni used to give place in the team to those players who used to arrange hookah for him"
— bhanu🇮🇳 (@Bhanu_R780) September 1, 2025
After Rohit's controversy Irfan Pathan again comes in the field.
pic.twitter.com/qbrhzEyREw
In the interview, Irfan said:
I don’t have a habit of setting up hookah in someone’s room or talking about this. Everyone knows. Sometimes if you don’t speak about it, it’s better. A cricketer’s job is to perform on the field and that is what I used to focus on.
However, upon noting the video getting viral all of a sudden, Irfan Pathan started receiving mixed reactions from the fans. It was also revealed that the interview between Irfan Pathan and Vikrant Gupta took place in 2020, and after five years, it has started to go viral all over the internet, putting Irfan and Dhoni in the limelight.
Half decade old video surfacing NOW with a twisted context to the Statement. Fan war? PR lobby?
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) September 3, 2025
Irfan Pathan must have been shocked, watching his remarks on MS Dhoni bloom up all of a sudden after five years. To this, he even went on to his Twitter handle, and posted, “Half decade old video surfacing NOW with a twisted context to the Statement. Fan war? PR lobby?” Although MS Dhoni has not responded to the same, fans still wonder whether the video of Pathan’s remarks was a PR team stunt or something else.
Virat Kohli
A number of renowned players announced their retirements from different formats of the game in 2025. Though every retirement might not have shaken the cricketing world, Virat Kohli’s retirement from the Test format was one of the most shocking retirements of all time, coming at a time when fans wanted him to play in the England tour.
Virat Kohli retired as one of the modern greats in the Test format for the Indian cricket team, having scored 9230 runs in 123 Test matches at an average of 46.85, with 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries. Various Indian fans, who watched the team’s prime in the Test format, might also have stopped watching the game due to his retirement.
At a time when the entire team and cricketing world missed the presence of Virat Kohli in the England tour, Irfan Pathan had a truly different opinion. India was able to perform well against England in the Test series, which helped the team to finish the series with a 2-2 draw, making every match intense.
This series reminds everyone once again
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) August 4, 2025
CRICKET DOESN’T STOP FOR ANYONE!
When the series came to an end, Irfan Pathan tweeted on his X account, “This series reminds everyone once again. CRICKET DOESN’T STOP FOR ANYONE!” This tweet, coming from a different perspective, was against Virat Kohli, as the majority of his fans missed him playing for India on the English pitches. Virat Kohli also didn’t react to the same, but Irfan Pathan received heavy criticism from his fans.
Hardik Pandya
If there is a list of Indian players who have been targeted the most by Irfan Pathan through his social media accounts, Hardik Pandya would definitely be at the top, leading with a huge margin. In the IPL 2024 season, when Hardik Pandya was announced as the captain of the Mumbai Indians, Irfan criticised him in almost every game that the team lost.
Why Tim David was ahead of Hardik when Rashid khan’s one over was left ? I would choose Indian better than overseas batter any day vs spinner. #GTvsMI
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) March 24, 2024
First, he targeted Hardik Pandya after the Mumbai Indians lost their match against the Gujarat Titans by just 6 runs while chasing. Although Hardik played a knock of 11 runs from 4 balls, he lost his wicket, making the team fall short of the target. Irfan Pathan tweeted on his X account:
Why Tim David was ahead of Hardik when Rashid khan’s one over was left? I would choose an Indian better than an overseas batter any day vs spinner.
The captaincy of Hardik Pandya has been ordinary to say the least. Keeping Bumrah away for too long when the carnage was on was beyond my understanding.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) March 27, 2024
Mumbai Indians had their next game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, and the team lost once again by a margin of 31 runs. Irfan Pathan criticised Hardik’s captaincy for not giving the ball to Jasprit Bumrah at the right time. SRH scored 277 runs in their innings, out of which Bumrah conceded just 36 runs in 4 overs, which was the least by any other bowler of the team.
Hardik Pandya bowling the last over showed the lack of faith on Akash madhwal’s bowling and his own lack of skill as a death over bowler.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 14, 2024
Later, the Mumbai Indians suffered their next loss against the Chennai Super Kings in a classic IPL match, where the team fell short by 20 runs while chasing the target. Hardik Pandya bowled the last over in this game, and despite taking a wicket, he conceded 20 runs in the last four balls. Irfan Pathan immediately took it to X, questioning Hardik’s decision, and also said that he doesn’t have faith in Akash Madhwal.
Hardik Pandya’s hitting ability is going down. That’s a big worry on a larger picture. At the wankhede he is different but on pitches where there is little help is what is worrisome for him.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 22, 2024
With hopes to elevate their performance, the Mumbai Indians played their next game against the Rajasthan Royals and batted first this time. The team lost by 9 wickets, and Hardik Pandya’s batting was not up to the mark, as he scored 10 runs at a strike rate of 100. As the match was being played on a pitch that favoured bowlers initially, Irfan Pathan criticised the hitting ability of Hardik Pandya, saying that it had deteriorated to a great extent.
Mumbai Indians had their worst performance in the 2024 season, despite having a star-studded line-up with players such as Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Tim David, Hardik Pandya, and many more. Despite the team missing out on the playoffs and being the first team to be knocked out of the tournament, it was heartbreaking for the MI fans.
The team mumbai Indians that qualified last year didn’t had Jasprit Bumrah but this season they had his services. Still they are in this situation. Purely because the team wasn’t managed well on the ground. Too many mistakes by their captain Hardik Pandya. It’s the truth.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 30, 2024
At this moment, Irfan Pathan stepped in once again to criticise Hardik Pandya for his captaincy failures in the IPL 2024 season. He also said that the Mumbai Indians didn’t have Jasprit Bumrah in IPL 2023, but still managed to reach the playoffs, and despite having Bumrah in the current season, the team missed out by a big margin.
Rohit Sharma
While Irfan Pathan may not have gone against Rohit Sharma on his social media platforms, he made some statements regarding his selection in the Test format. During the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Rohit Sharma pulled himself out from the final Test and had an interview with Irfan Pathan during the match breaks.
A few weeks ago, Irfan Pathan had an interview at Lallantop, where he was asked whether Rohit Sharma’s move to pull himself out from the final Test was a PR stunt or a move for the team’s benefit. Fans also noted that Irfan Pathan was last seen in the Star Sports commentary panel during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which made them think he was sacked due to his criticisms of stars like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Responding to the question asked by the interviewer, he said:
Personally, I feel he should have fought for it, which I had said even back then, not just now. I think he should have played. When you’re there, mate, if you’re in the team, part of the team, the captain, even if you’re just a player in the middle of a tournament, you can’t pick and choose. You simply can’t. That’s the responsibility of the team management, the captain, and the coach. But you can’t pick and choose; you have to fight it out.
While fans thought that he was on Rohit’s side and believed that he should have fought against his hard times, they were not prepared for what’s coming next. Irfan Pathan continued answering the question:
Rohit Sharma is an amazing player in white-ball cricket, but his average in Test cricket that year was 6, so we said that if he was not the captain, he would not have had a place in the team, and this is true.
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