Yusuf Pathan

Full Name           : Yusuf Khan Pathan 
Date of Birth       : 17th November 1982
Place of Birth      : Baroda (now Vadodara), Gujarat, India
Nick Name           : Lethal Weapon, Steeler, Run Machine, The Beast,
Height              : 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Batting style       : Right-handed
Bowling style       : Right arm off break
Role                : All-rounder
ODI Debut (cap 172) : 10 June 2008 v Pakistan
Only T20I (cap 18)  : 24 September 2007 v Pakistan
Yusuf Pathan is an Indian cricketer. Pathan made his debut in first-class cricket in 2001/02.  Yusuf Pathan is a powerful and aggressive right-handed batsman and a right-arm offbreak bowler.  Yusuf Pathan brother Irfan Pathan is also an Indian cricketer. Though younger than Yusuf, it was Irfan who entered the Indian team first.
Career
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.  Yusuf Pathan made his Twenty20 international debut in the final against Pakistan.  Yusuf Pathan 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 USD 475,000 (INR 1.9 crore). In the 2008 IPL season, he scored 435 runs and took 8 wickets.  Yusuf Pathan 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 against the Chennai Super Kings. Pathan is considered as one of the finest hitter of the cricket ball.
Following his good showing in the IPL, he was selected for the Indian one-day team. After IPL, though he played all the games in the Kitply Cup and Asia Cup he got to bat only four times.  Yusuf Pathan could not perform very well with both bat and ball in the Asia Cup and the Kitply Cup and so he wasn't selected for the series against Sri Lanka.  Yusuf Pathan performed well in domestic circuit and impressed the selectors and was selected for the England ODI series in November.  Yusuf Pathan 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.  Yusuf Pathan  became a regular feature of the national One-Day International team, but is yet to make his test debut.
Even though Pathan could not repeat his first IPL performance in the second season, he was selected in the Indian team to play the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 championships in England. In the second of the Super 8 matches of India, he made an unbeaten 33 from 17 balls against England, despite his team losing the game and crashing out of the tournament before the semi-finals.
In late-2009, Pathan was dropped from the limited overs team after a series of unproductive performances and the allrounder's position was taken over by Ravindra Jadeja.
In the final of the 2010 Duleep Trophy cricket tournament, Pathan scored a hundred in the first innings and a double hundred in the second and led his team West Zone to a three wicket win over South Zone. Pathan made 108 in the first innings and an unbeaten 210 from 190 balls in the second innings. This became a world record in cricket for the highest successful run chase in first class cricket history.
On 13 March 2010, Pathan scored a century off 37 balls, in an Indian Premier League match against Mumbai Indians. The innings also included record 11 consecutive hits to the boundary (6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4).
After that knock where he scored the fastest IPL century his Rajasthan Royals skipper Shane Warne described his innings as one of the best innings he has even seen in his career and also compared Yusuf Pathan with his country-mate Andrew Symonds as these two are the clear hitters of the ball.
Also Yusuf Pathan was named as the Vice Captain for Rajasthan Royals during IPL 3.
On 7 December 2010 Pathan magic seals win for India. Pathan clobbered the New Zealand attack with his aggressive innings, Yusuf Pathan smashed an unbeaten 123 from 96 balls and shared an unbroken 133-run partnership with Saurabh Tiwary to guide India to a huge target of 316 with seven balls to spare and give the hosts a 4-0 lead in the series.  Yusuf Pathan was named man of the match. The all-rounder clubbed seven fours and seven sixes on the way to his maiden one-day century to help the hosts overhaul New Zealand's challenging 315-7 with seven balls to spare at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
At the awards distribution ceremony he stated that "this knock will boost my career".Indian captain Gautam Gambhir said "I have always said Pathan can finish games on his own, and that's what he did today, I had never seen something like this before. But I knew till the time Pathan was there, we would win the game."
New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori said "It was a great game of cricket, we were in the game, but Pathan was pretty amazing and took the game away from us."
In the 2011 IPL auction, he was bought for whopping $2.1 million by Kolkata Knight Riders.
In the MTN ODI series against South Africa before the 2011 World Cup, he gave a stand out performance in a match against South Africa in Pretoria where he scored a brilliant 105 in 70 deliveries (comprising 8 fours and 8 sixes), even though India lost the match, his performance was complimented heavily. During this knock, he reached his century off 68 balls which is the sixth fastest by an Indian and the second fastest by an Indian outside the subcontinent. Thanks to his stream of good performances, he made it to the Indian team for 2011 World Cup.and also scored 100 for just 37 balls vs Mumbai Indians in IPL 2010 Though Yusuf did not have a great world cup, he ended up having the winner's medal and the honor of holding the world cup aloft.
Yusuf Pathan in IPL 2011 Matches 13 Runs 221 Balls 150 Top Score 47 not out Average 27.62 Strike Rate 147.33
International Centuries
One Day International CenturiesIn
One Day International Centuries of YK Pathan
1 123* 41  New Zealand Bangalore, India M Chinnaswamy Stadium 2010
2 105 45  South Africa Centurion, South Africa SuperSport Park 2011