Yusuf Khan Pathan biography
Yusuf Khan Pathan (born 17 November 1982 in Baroda) is an Indian cricketer. Pathan made his debut in first-class cricket in 2001/02. He is a hard hitting right handed batsman and a right-arm offbreak bowler. His brother Irfan Pathan is also an Indian cricketer. Though younger to Yusuf, it was Irfan who entered the Indian team first. Following his impressive performances in the 2007 Deodhar Trophy and the Inter-state domestic Twenty20 competition held in April 2007, Pathan was made a part of the Indian squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship, held in South Africa in September 2007. He made his Twenty20 international debut in the final against Pakistan. He opened the batting for India in the match, and scored 15 runs in the process. After a good domestic season in 2007/08, he was signed by the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League for $ 475,000 (INR 1.9 crore). In the 2008 IPL season, he scored 435 runs and took 8 wickets. He recorded the season's fastest half century (from 21 balls) against the Deccan Chargers, and was also the Man of the Match in the final. Following his good showing in the IPL, he was selected for the Indian one-day team. After the IPL though he played all the games in the Kitply Cup and Asia Cup he got to bat only four times.He couldn't perform nicely with the bat and the ball in the Asia Cup and in the Kitply Cup and so he wasn't selected for the Sri lanka Series. He performed well in domestic circuit and impressed the selectors and was selected for the England ODI series in November. He scored a fifty off just 29 balls in the second ODI against England in Indore, on his 26th birthday. Yusuf had made his One-Day International debut for India against Pakistan at Dhaka on 10 June 2008. He has become a permanent feature of the national One-Day International team, but has yet to make his test debut. Yousuf Pahtan specialises in Twenty-20 form of cricket. He is a hard hitter of the ball. Yousuf Pathan's batting in the Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka on 10th February 2009 is one of the most unforgettable run chases in the history of Indian cricket. In this match India was chasing a target of 172 runs. When Pathan came to bat, India was at a score of 117/7 and Indian batsmen were finding it difficult even to rotate the strike, on the other end was his brother Irfan Pathan. India needed 57 runs from 29 deliveries. Yousuf Pathan then spilled fire from his bat and went after the bowlers and hit 2 sixes and a four in a single over and this inspired his brother who took over the charge after this. Both of them scored 59 runs in 25 balls taking India from 117/7 to 174/7. The amazing performance took the victory away from the Sri Lankan side who were almost set to win the match. He scored 22 of 10 balls and Irfan Pathan scored 32 of 16 balls.

Yusuf Khan Pathan