Irfan Pathan Jnr - his namesake is also a left-arm seamer for Baroda - is India’s youngest pace-bowling hope. At 18, he has already established himself as part of arguably the most incisive pace trio in the country, alongside Zaheer Khan and Rakesh Patel; served consistently as spearhead of the national under-19 team; and finds himself regularly selected for the India A team. Tall, and well filled out for his age, Irfan does most of his work off the seam at a useful pace off a side-on action, and his left-handedness marks him out a natural danger to the right-hander. Like Zaheer, one of his two idols – Wasim Akram, naturally, is the other – Irfan has refined his raw ability at the Dennis Lillee-assisted MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai. In another two years, this boy could be a star

India left-arm seamer Irfan Pathan (5-61) took a hat-trick in the first over, the first bowler to do so in the Test cricket history in first over of the third and final Test against Pakistan on Sunday. Pathan had Salman Butt caught at first slip by Rahul Dravid with a sharp outswinger, trapped captain Younis Khan LBW with a sharp inswinger and bowled Mohammad Yousuf with another big inswinger to leave Pakistan reeling on nought for three. Pathan took wickets with his fourth, fifth and sixth balls to complete the 36th hat-trick in Test cricket history.
Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is the only other India bowler to take a Test hat-trick, against Australia at Kolkatta in 2000-01. The 21-year-old Pathan had his victims beaten by the swing as well as seam movement extracted from the pitch. The left-armer is the 33rd bowler to record this feat in Test cricket. It is the 36th occasion that a bowler had taken three wickets off successive balls in the longer version of the game. Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram, Australians Hugh Trumble and Jimmy Matthews have taken two hat-tricks in Test cricket.