Mohammad Irfan thinks he ended Gautam Gambhir's cricket career

Mohammad Irfan, in a recent interview, has claimed that he ended the white ball career of Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir is said to be one of the best limited-overs players that India has produced. 

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'Did not make eye contact'

Irfan said, "He (Gambhir) didn’t like to face me in a match or when both teams had nets, I always felt he avoided eye to eye contact with me. I remember I got him out four times in 2012 limited over series and he was unnerved against me. Gautam Gambhir was afraid of me. I think his career ended because of me. He didn't return to the team after that." He also said that the Indian players were not comfortable facing him because of his height. When I played against India, they were not comfortable batting against me. "Some of them told me in the 2012 series in India that they couldn’t sight my ball properly because of my height and also didn’t read my pace." 

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Comparing International records

Gambhir started playing for India in limited-overs in 2003 and has made 5238 ODI runs with an average of 39.68 runs. He has faced Pakistan 19 times, scoring 549 runs. Mohammed Irfan picked his wickets on a few instances and in an interview with a local channel has gone on to the extent of claiming that he ended the 2011 ICC World Cup winner's cricketing career.

Gambhir scored 97 runs in the finals against Sri Lanka to guide India to win the final and also scored 75 runs against Pakistan in the finals of the World Twenty20 at Johannesburg in 2007. Irfan was banned in early 2017 from playing cricket for a year for failing to report approaches made by bookies. Irfan last played for Pakistan in 2016 and in 60 innings, he has taken 83 wickets.

Gautam Gambhir announced his retirement in December 2018 and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in April 2019, prior to the Lok Sabha polls where he contested from the Delhi East constituency.

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(With inputs from PTI)