Irfan Pathan joins Ravindra Jadeja in elite club after completing 2,000 T20 runs

Irfan Pathan might have announced his retirement from international and domestic cricket but the former India all-rounder is still a force to reckon with on the cricket field. The former Indian cricketer is currently in Sri Lanka for the ongoing first edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL). He is playing for Kandy Tuskers.

On Wednesday, he impressed with the bat to help Tuskers beat Jaffna Stallions and register their second win of the tournament in seven games. He scored an unbeaten 25 as Tuskers chased down 151 with five balls to spare. Pathan joined Asela Gunaratne when the Tuskers were in a precarious position. They were reeling at 95 for 4 in the 14th over at that stage.

But before the Stallions could make more inroads in the game, Pathan and Gunaratne steadied the ship for their side. The duo shared an unbeaten stand of 56 runs to help Tuskers register a much-needed win. Gunaratne remained unbeaten on 52 off 37 balls while Pathan’s 25 runs came off 16 balls with the help of four boundaries.

Iran Pathan joins an elite list

Following his match-winning knock for the Tuskers, Irfan Pathan has joined an elite club. He has become just the second player from India to complete a double of 150 wickets and 2,000 runs in the shortest format of the game. He crossed the 2000-run mark in T20Is when he went past his individual score of 16 against the Stallions.

The first Indian player to achieve the incredible feat is all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Pathan also became the fastest player to achieve the feat. While Jadeja crossed the milestone in 220 matches, it took Pathan only 180 games for the same. He has now scored 2,009 runs and picked up 173 wickets in T20s. As far as Jadeja’s numbers are concerned, the India ace all-rounder has scored 2,586 runs and picked up 164 wickets in 252 T20s so far.

Earlier this year in January, Pathan had announced his retirement from all forms of the game. He represented India in 29 Tests, 120 ODIs and 24 T20Is. The all-rounder picked up 301 international wickets and scored more than 2500 runs across all three formats of the game.