Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has stirred up a storm as his comments on MS Dhoni went viral where he questioned the circumstances behind his sudden exit from national side, where he indirectly pointed fingers towards Dhoni’s captaincy.
In a candid chat with Sports Tak journalist Vikrant Gupta, Irfan Pathan claimed that he was excluded from the team despite being a good performer, he indirectly hinted towards other factors that were beyond the field which might be behind this.
Ms dhoni used to select those players who set hukka for him, i denied and i got dropped – Irfan Pathan pic.twitter.com/tlbFPvYZNU
— Popa 🇮🇳 (@rafalekohli) September 1, 2025
Recalling a particular incident from 2008 tour of Australia, Pathan mentioned how media reports hinted that Dhoni said he was not bowling well. But when Pathan went on to confront the skipper, he clearly mentioned there was nothing as such.
“Yes, I asked him. During the 2008 Australia series, Mahi bhai’s statement came out in the media that Irfan wasn’t bowling well. So I thought I had bowled well throughout the series, so I went and asked Mahi bhai about this. Sometimes, the statements are twisted in the media, so I also wanted to clarify. So Mahi bhai said, ‘no Irfan, there is nothing like this, everything’s going as per plans.’ When you get a reply like this, then you believe that okay, you do what you can. Also if you keep asking for explanations again and again after that, you hurt your self-respect,” he said in the interview.
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“I don’t have a habit of setting up hookah in someone’s room or talking about this. Everyone knows. Sometimes if you don’t speak about it, it’s better. A cricketer’s job is to perform on the field and that is what I used to focus on,” he further said.
Irfan then went on to mention that he doesn’t set up hookah in anyone’s room, even though he didn’t name Dhoni, the comment quickly went viral. MS Dhoni was recently in spotlight when his video from 2024 surfaced online which showed him enjoying hookah. Furthermore, George Bailey also once mentioned that Dhoni occasionally smoked hookah to bond with teammates.
