Yusuf Khan Pathan was born on 17 November 1982 in Baroda,Gujrat. His father served as the muezzin. Although their parents wished them to become Islamic scholars, Pathan and his brother took an interest in cricket. Their games on the grounds off and inside the mosque often necessitated apologies from their father to Muslim worshippers who visited it.

Yusuf Pathan first made his mark as a hard-hitting batsman and offspinner for the Baroda Under-16 team in the Vijay Merchant Trophy in 1999-2000. His impressive showings saw him quickly climb the rungs to the Baroda U-19 and the West Zone U-19 sides. He made his Ranji debut against Saurashtra in 2001-02, but it wasn't until the 2004-05 season, by when younger brother Irfan Pathan was donning the national colours, that he established himself as a regular in the Baroda squad. He ended the 2004-05 season as Baroda's fourth-highest scorer and third-highest wicket-taker.

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. He made his Twenty20 international debut in the final against Pakistan. He opened the batting for India in the match, and scored 15 runs in the process.

Following his good showing in the IPL, he was selected for the Indian one-day team. After the IPL though he played all the games in the Kitply Cup and Asia Cup he got to bat only four times.He couldn't perform very well with the bat and the ball in the Asia Cup and in the Kitply Cup and so he wasn't selected for the Series.against Sri Lanka. He performed well in domestic circuit and impressed the selectors and was selected for the England ODI series in November. He 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. He has become a permanent feature of the national One-Day International team, but has yet to make his test debut.

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. He 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.

Yousuf Pahtan specialises in Twenty-20 form of cricket. He is a hard hitter of the ball.

Yousuf Pathan's batting in the Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka on 10 February 2009 helped India chasing one of the most unforgettable run chases in the history of Indian cricket. In this match India was chasing a target of 172 runs. When Pathan came to bat, India was at a score of 117/7 and Indian batsmen were finding it difficult even to rotate the strike, on the other end was his brother Irfan Pathan. India needed 57 runs from 29 deliveries. Yousuf Pathan then spilled fire from his bat and went after the bowlers and hit 2 sixes and a four in a single over and this inspired his brother who took over the charge after this. Both of them scored 59 runs in 25 balls taking India from 117/7 to 174/7. The amazing performance took the victory away from the Sri Lankan side who were almost set to win the match. He scored 22 of 10 balls and Irfan Pathan scored 32 of 16 balls.

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