Having been part of the Indian dressing room way back in May 2009, a fully-fit Irfan Pathan is working hard to earn his place back.

By Abhideep Das

Team India’s pathetic and listless showing in the first two Test matches against England has opened up many debates on team composition.

Sunil Gavaskar has made no bones about the fact that apart from showing some “heart” and “fight” in their on-field performances, what MS Dhoni and company need desperately is a bowling all-rounder.

Someone who could have fit that bill perfectly would have been an in-form and fit Irfan Pathan. The all-rounder, who played his last match for India in May 2009, suffered a severe back injury last year because of which he missed the entire domestic season.

ESPNSTAR.com caught up with the 26-year-old Baroda lad who has has played 29 Tests and 107 ODIs. Excerpts:

Abhideep Das: Irfan, it’s been a rough last couple of years for you. How difficult has been this phase to deal with?

Irfan Pathan: Look injuries are unavoidable in a sportsperson’s career. You can’t do much about it. So I don’t want to look back. What is gone is gone! I played the full season of IPL-4 for Delhi Daredevils. As we all are aware, the schedule of IPL is very demanding since you are either playing or travelling every alternate day. Thus the very fact that I survived this hectic schedule means that I am fully fit now and raring to go. I am devoting a lot of time to training and want to keep playing as many matches as possible.

It is also very important that when I play these games, I am 100 per cent on top of my form. What I am doing right now is preparing myself well for any form of cricket, let alone domestic cricket. In that sense, tournaments like the BCCI Corporate Trophy and the Challenger series are very important for me (these two tournaments prelude the Ranji Trophy). It is essential that I build on the bowling rhythm that I was gaining towards the end of IPL. I felt good about the swing that I was generating. In short, I want to play as many matches as possible in the near future. This is to ensure that whenever the opportunity comes to represent Team India again, I am match-fit and at the peak of my bowling prowess.

In recent times, a lot of Indian bowlers are breaking down due to injuries. Do you feel it helps to have a specialist trainer who can guide them even during the off-season?

It is not that we don’t have any specialist trainers to guide us during the off-season. The BCCI has ensured that any of the contracted players who need attention on their injuries, can go the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore any time and consult the doctors and physicians there. So it will be wrong to say that there is no specialist to guide us during the breaks or off-season.

But ultimately I do feel that in terms of injury management, an individual player needs to take care of his own body. In most cases when someone is tired, you often get an inkling that an injury is about to happen. One has to make sure that the minute you get this feeling, you inform the team-management or the BCCI, as the case may be. Certain injuries like a broken finger while batting or fielding or twisting one’s ankle while bowling are unavoidable and beyond your control. But for any other muscle-related injury, you do get inkling that something may go wrong. Even if that’s not the case, it is important to keep checking and re-checking on your fitness status. Like I said earlier, the onus is on the player to take care of his injury and not hide anything since he knows his body best.

You were coming back from a major injury when you played IPL this season. Were you satisfied with your own individual performance?

Look to be absolutely honest, I was not at all satisfied with my performance during the first half of the tournament. But as we moved into the later half, my bowling gradually got better. The way I clean-bowled Sachin Tendulkar at the Wankhede Stadium gave me a lot of satisfaction. I do believe that that your bowling is on the way up when you tend to take wickets by having batsmen bowled or getting them caught behind. Getting the batsman dismissed through a catch at the boundary line while going for a big shot is no good. Similar to Sachin, I also got Jacques Kallis clean-bowled at the Feroz Shah Kotla. So getting all these big players out in that manner gives you a lot of confidence. I only wish I had got to play more matches after IPL since the rhythm in my bowling was coming back. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. You can’t do much about it.

Irfan, you have played a fair bit of cricket in England. How tough is it for a bowler from the sub-continent to go and adjust to the conditions there?

From my experience, I can tell you that it is easier for the bowlers to play Test cricket rather than the ODIs. When I played for Middlesex in 2005, I remember the wickets did offer some help in the four-day fixtures. In the limited-overs format, the pitch tends to be on the flatter side like anywhere else around the world. But every professional cricketer is expected to adjust to the surroundings and environment quickly. In that sense, playing a couple of practice games before the Tests is very important.

Your batting has improved a great deal over the last four to five years. But one has also seen a dip in your bowling form. Do you think this happened because you were trying too hard to prove yourself as an all-rounder?

No, I don’t agree with that. Look there were quite a few things that did not work out as it should have. I fully agree that my bowling form dipped. But that did not happen because I was too focused on my batting. Also constant injuries and the fact that I needed some rework on my bowling action made things further difficult for me. But the important thing is I have learnt from all those experiences. Now I want to make sure that whenever I play, I give more than my 100 per cent in both the departments. I made my debut for India in 2003, so have been around for a while and have picked up a fair bit of experience of different situations. It is important to make that experience count. I agree that I made some mistakes in the past. Nothing comes easy for a sportsperson, least of all an international recall. There is no doubt in my mind that I am still good enough to do well at the international level. I can talk all I want, but ultimately it is the performance on the field that matters. It is time for me to ‘Walk the Talk’!