Former Indian cricket team all-rounder Irfan Pathan took to social media to post an emotional message for his hairstylist Faiyaz Ansari who died after drowning in a swimming pool during their T20 World Cup 2024 trip. Ansari, who was the former cricketer’s personal payroll, was accompanying Irfan who was in the Caribbean for his commentary engagements during the T20 World Cup 2024. The incident took place ahead of the Super 8 match between India and Australia. Irfan posted a collage of pictures and videos featuring Ansari and also himself to the tune of “See You Again” on his social media handles.

““In the past six years, Faiyaz became family to us. My children would run to greet him whenever he came over. He loved me like an elder brother, and I loved him like a younger one. The pain of losing him is indescribable; I’ve never experienced anything like it. His ever-smiling face and his constant ‘ji bhai’ will stay with me forever. I miss you dearly my brother my shadow, Faiyaz,” the caption read.

Faiyaz Ansari hailed from Nagina in Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh and he started his salon in Mumbai.

According to reports, Ansari’s cousin Mohammad Ahmed said that the news left his family completely devastated and Irfan was working on all the formalities to get his body back to India.

Meanwhile, former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly said Rohit Sharma‘s leadership qualities played a big hand in India’s unbeaten run in the ongoing T20 World Cup, and urged the team to play with freedom in the final against South Africa to end a 11-year wait for an ICC trophy.

India will face the Proteas in the title clash at Bridgetown, Barbados, and will be eyeing their first global trophy since winning the Champions Trophy in 2013.

“I’m very happy for Rohit Sharma. Life comes full circle. Six months ago he was not even the captain of Mumbai Indians and the same man is now leading India to a World Cup final, unbeaten,” he said.

Pacer Jasprit Bumrah has been showing his true mettle every now and then and guiding Team India to victory in crucial games. In the ongoing T20 World Cup, the star pacer is at his absolute best and consistently delivering top-notch performances. His magnificent three-wicket haul against Pakistan is one of the major highlights of the tournament. It was Bumrah’s deadly spell that propelled Team India to win against the arch-rivals Pakistan in a low-scoring encounter.

Not just Pakistan, Bumrah also registered the figures of 4/7 against Afghanistan. Recently, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan praised the 30-year-old pacer and compared him to the “Reserve Bank of India”.

“He is like the Reserve Bank of India. He is absolutely safe. You expect him to perform when he bowls four overs in any situation. He sets up the game. How does he do that? Twelve runs had come in the first over bowled by Arshdeep (Singh), which means Afghanistan had got the momentum,” Pathan said on Star Sports.

“He (Bumrah) came in the second over and started putting an impact as soon as he came in. The wickets he took and the way he bowled in different phases, he bowled six slower balls in the first six overs, which means he sets the bowling tone. No one sets the bowling tone better than Jasprit Bumrah in world cricket,” he added.

Irfan further praised Bumrah for maintaining a good line and length in his bowling and not relying much on the bouncers.

“He is the top-most in Indian bowling. He bowls good lengths. If you see his pitch map, you will get to see a cluster, the slower ones, and you will see him using the bouncer only when it’s required,” he said.

“The biggest thing in this World Cup is that when Jasprit Bumrah will come to bowl in the end, you will get to see a little reverse as well. It’s a very big factor if India have to win this World Cup. No bowler will complain. Batters might complain that they are playing during the day but all bowlers will say they are getting a dry ball,” he added.

The IPL 2024 playoffs started on Tuesday with Qualifier 1 between Kolkata Knight Riders and SunRisers Hyderabad. KKR missed the services of their fiery opener Phil Salt in their clash. Salt hails from England. It’s not only KKR, other like Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be missing some England players in the playoff stage. The reason for that is that England players have left India to join the national side before the 2024 T20 World Cup. 

The decision was slammed by former India cricketers Sunil Gavaakar and Irfan Pathan. Now, former England captain Michael Vaughan defended the decision.   

“If you are going back to represent your country, which England players have done, I think that’s fair enough. They are playing a series against Pakistan. The England players wouldn’t have gone back if it wasn’t for the Pakistan series,” Vaughan said on Cricbuzz.

“The series was on the calendar. With English cricket, the defence of the 50-over World Cup was a poor one by England here in India. So I think, Jos and his team, 5 games against Pakistan, they get together. The actual lead-up to the 50-over World Cup wasn’t perfect either. There were a lot of swaps and changes. They have now gone back to 5 matches, get all the squad together, work on a bit of culture, everyone playing their right roles, I think it will give them a better chance.”

Punjab Kings’ all-rounder Liam Livingstone on Monday returned to England from the ongoing IPL to undergo a knee recuperation ahead of the next month’s T20 World Cup. Along with Livingstone, Jos Buttler (Rajasthan Royals), Will Jacks and Reece Topley (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) also have left the IPL to join England squad ahead of the T20I series against Pakistan, beginning on May 22. 

Other player who had left were – Moeen Ali (CSK), Sam Curran, Jonny Bairstow (PBKS).

The Indian Premier League often helps the country unearth new cricketing gems. The story of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) star Swapnil Singh came to the for this season while others like Deepak Hooda have been doing brilliant stuff regularly in the T20 league. Swapnil and Hooda, who both play for Baroda in domestic cricket, reportedly went through plenty of issues in the team at Baroda, especially with skipper Krunal Pandya while Hooda’s troubles haven’t with the captain haven’t been hidden from the Indian cricketing fraternity either.

Seeing the duo showcase their talent in the IPL, a social media user thanked former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan for lending his helping hand as the duo went into a cricketing crisis at Baroda.

“Thank you so much @IrfanPathan saab, for helping players like Deepak Hooda and Swapnil Singh who were facing so many problems in Baroda cricket team because of their Captain – Krunal Pandya. The fans of Indian Cricket will not forget your contributions,” a fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“They were working hard when no one was watching. It’s their positive attitude and persistence took them where they are,” Irfan said in reply to the post.

They were working hard when no one was watching. It’s their positive attitude and persistence took them where they are.

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) May 21, 2024

This season, Swapnil has been a decent bowler for RCB, picking up 6 wickets in 6 matches while also proving to be a handy lower-order batter. Hooda, on the other hand, didn’t have the best of starts to the 17th edition of IPL but did well in the recent games. Overall, the Lucknow Super Giants star contributed 145 runs in 9 innings at an average of 18.13.

Irfan has been acting as a fine guiding force in Indian cricket over the last few years, helping emerging cricketers unleash their true potential.

It has been a topsy-turvy run for Chennai Super Kings and their new captain Ruturaj Gaikwad in the ongoing IPL 2024. CSK had won 7 out of their 13 matches till now but their spot before taking on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a crucial encounter on Saturday, which they lost. The defeat put CSK out of the running for IPL 2024 playoffs, with RCB going through. CSK skipper Ruturaj has excelled with his bat this season but former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan had a word of advice for the CSK captain over his leadership credentials. Pathan said that Ravindra Jadeja was removed from captaincy after a poor run in 2022 and a similar situation can also arise with Ruturaj.

“CSK bring in the pedigree of being the team who knows how to win crucial moments. But they have lots of issues at the moment. Injury issues, new captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is no longer leading them. You might have seen him occasionally setting the field, but he is not the captain. You might have remembered what happened when [Ravindra] Jadeja led the side and it didn’t end well, the same can happen again. CSK fans will hope that they march ahead of these issues and win the crucial two points,” he said on Star Sports

Pathan also weighed in on the conversation surrounding MS Dhoni‘s future in the IPL.

“It could be the last game for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, or it may not,” said Pathan.

Ahead of the CSK vs RCB match, Pathan had said that he believes the Faf Du Plessis-led side holds a slight advantage. RCB indeed ended up winning the match by 27 runs.

“Nothing is easy. It’s not going to be easy for both teams. RCB has the momentum, a solid momentum. And if they win as there is no more dangerous side than the one in strong momentum,” he concluded.

The IPL 2024 playoffs will not have any England cricketer competing who are part of the T20 World Cup 2024 squad as they were called back by the England Cricket Board (ECB) for a training camp ahead of the competition. As a result, the likes of Jos Buttler (Rajasthan Royals), Phil Salt (Kolkata Knight Riders) and Will Jacks (Royal Challengers Bengaluru) will not be a part of the competition anymore despite the fact that all of their teams are in the race for the playoffs. Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan took to social media to express his feeling regarding the development and he delivered a brutal message for the departing players. “Either be available for full season or don’t come!” he posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals slumped to a 5-wicket loss against Punjab Kings with Sam Curran producing a brilliant all-round performance.

RR captain Sanju Samson opened up about the loss.

“We needed a few more runs. I think we were 10-15 runs short. It was a 160 kind of a wicket. We would have easily got more than 160 (had we played better), that’s where we lost the game. Would have been nice to have one more bowling option. I am getting used to five quality bowlers. We have to sit back and accept that we are going through failures, have lost four games on the trot.”

“Got to find out what’s not working out for us as a team. Somebody needs to step up, we have so many match-winners in the team. This is the time we need to show character. We need to score more runs. We thought 160-170 would have been a good score. We are not used to playing on such wickets this season where 200-plus totals are getting scored easily. We had to play smart cricket and build those partnerships today. Hopefully the result goes in our way (in the upcoming games),” Samson said after the match.