Former cricketer Irfan Pathan was a godsend, as the Indian team did not have decent pace-bowling all-rounders during those times. He was capable of opening the bowling and batting at various spots, making him an ideal addition to the team regularly between 2004 and 2009. The Baroda cricketer was dropped from the national team as new players took their place. Irfan said that he was left out of the Indian team despite delivering key performances and contributing to the team's best interest. The cricketer made a stinging accusation that performances like his would not have enabled selectors to leave anyone out for at least a year or two more. He even attempted to speak to the then chief coach Gary Kirsten about being overlooked for the Playing XI, but the answer was not good, he said. Here is what he said during an interview with The Lallantop: "It was back in 2009 [that I was dropped], when we were in New Zealand. Before that, my brother (Yusuf Pathan) and I had won matches in Sri Lanka. The situation in which we had pulled a win – if it had been anyone else in our place, they wouldn’t have been dropped for a year. In that match against Sri Lanka, we needed 60 runs from just 27–28 balls, and we won it from there," "In New Zealand, I was benched for the first match, the second match, and the third match as well. The fourth match was a draw because of rain. I wasn’t in the final match either. Then I asked Gary sir why I had been dropped. If there was something I needed to improve, he could tell me, but I wanted to know the reason I was left out," he added. Also Read | Rajasthan Royals End CSK Talks, Eye Deal with This Franchise for Sanju Samson It was 40-year-old Irfan's version that when he spoke to Kirsten, Kirsten informed him that it wasn't completely his decision to make for selecting the final combination or the squad. And as the then skipper MS Dhoni had the final say in selecting the final Playing XI, Irfan had to even end up sitting on the bench before being excluded from the squad altogether. Irfan was also informed that the side needed a batting all-rounder rather than a bowling all-rounder, which did not impress him. "Kirsten gave me two reasons. He said, ‘There are things that are not in my hand.’ Those were Gary’s exact words. I asked whose hands it was in, but he didn’t tell me. I already knew whose hands it was in. The playing XI is decided by the captain’s choice. I won’t get into whether that decision was right or wrong, because every captain has the right to run the team in his own way. "The second answer was that they were looking for a batting all-rounder at No. 7. Fair enough, my brother was a batting all-rounder, while I was a bowling all-rounder. The two were different from each other, but there was only room for one in the team. Nowadays, if you ask whether two all-rounders are needed, people would gladly take both," Irfan concluded on the matter. Significantly, the erstwhile cricketer kept working hard in the domestic leagues and was offered a long rope during 2012, yet absence of performances that were above par saw him eventually lose his place in the national team for the second time. He was included in the winning Champions Trophy 2013 team, but didn't even get to play a single match as Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Umesh Yadav spearheaded the pace arsenal through the entire tournament.