The warrior pathan

As his teammates were losing their heads amid the slaughter at the SCG, Pathan took the battle to Australia. His figures — 2/75 off 10 — may not look impressive but at least he stared the batsmen in the eye. His exuberance did, on occasion, get the better of him, and he may yet be rapped by the ICC for his send-off of Martyn, but he was the only Indian not willing to roll over and play dead.

‘‘Woh bachpan se hi waisa hai (He’s been like that since his childhood),’’ his father Mehboob Khan told The Indian Express today. He recalled an incident when he came off the hospital bed with sixteen stitches on his jaw to hit 70 not out and see Baroda through in an under-16 game against Mumbai.

‘‘All the other players laughed at him saying tu aabhi kia khelega (what will you do now). But he went and won the match for his team,” said Khan.

Khan recalled another instance, in an inter-school game, when Pathan’s opponents were six runs away from vixtory with five wickets in hand. ‘‘He took all the wickets without giving away a single run to help his team to victory.’’