Irfan Pathan Warns Pakistan After the Dubai Gun Mime

Irfan Pathan told Haris Rauf and Sahibzada Farhan their Dubai gestures were needless, and that India would not let the taunts drop. India had just chased 174/4 after Pakistan posted 171/5 in the Asia Cup Super Fours at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on September 21, 2025, winning by 6 wickets with 7 balls left.

The former India all-rounder spoke the next day on his YouTube channel. He went after a gun mime and a 6-0 jet sign that had already outrun the scorecard, then set a rule the ICC would take weeks to price.

Farhan’s Fifty Came With a Gun Mime

Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan reached fifty off 34 balls, with 5 fours and 3 sixes, then finished on 58 off 45 at a strike rate of 128.88. The landmark came with a six off Axar Patel in the tenth over. Farhan held his bat like a rifle, pointed it at the dugout, and mimed firing.

The act landed five months after terrorists killed 26 tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22, 2025. India and Pakistan had already played a group match in this tournament on September 14 with no handshake at the toss and none after the game. Captain Suryakumar Yadav had dedicated that win to the families of the Pahalgam dead and to the armed forces who took part in Operation Sindoor.

Farhan was still batting as if the night were a normal T20. He was out at 14.1, caught by Yadav off Shivam Dube for 58, with Pakistan 115 for 4. Faheem Ashraf later hit 20 not out off 8, and Pakistan closed on 171/5 at 8.55 an over. The gun mime was already the clip that would travel.

Rauf Answered Kohli Chants With 6-0

Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf spent part of the chase on the boundary, where Indian spectators chanted Virat Kohli at him. The chant pointed back to Kohli’s two sixes off Rauf at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the 2022 T20 World Cup. Rauf answered with a 6-0 sign and a mime of aircraft going down.

In India the numbers were read as Pakistan’s claim that it had downed six Indian fighter jets in the May fighting. Rauf later told an ICC hearing the sign meant nothing and was not aimed at India. He pleaded not guilty. The clip still sat next to Farhan’s bat-as-rifle, on a night when both dressing rooms had already stopped pretending the series was only sport.

Rauf bowled 4 overs for 26 and took 2 wickets, Yadav for 0 off 3 and Sanju Samson for 13. He was the most expensive thing India faced in another sense. Pathan had met him in Australia a few years earlier and had walked away thinking he was a decent person. The boundary mime, Pathan said, was not required.

What Did Irfan Pathan Say to Rauf and Farhan?

Pathan said the gestures were needless, that they showed both players’ nature and upbringing, and that if Pakistan messed with India the reply would come in runs and in words. He posted a short version of that message on X on September 22, then sent viewers to the longer cut on YouTube. He also said Indian players had stayed civil even when they would not shake hands, and that Abhishek Sharma had told the presentation Pakistan said things it should not have said.

The gestures he made in the field yesterday were needless. It tells about both of their nature and what upbringing they come from.

Irfan Pathan, former India all-rounder, on his YouTube channel

He went further. Play cricket in the field, he said. To stoop to a personal level is quite bad, and then to expect India not to talk about it is wrong. He was not surprised. They are capable of doing these things. What you got to see on television was bad itself, but the things that go on behind the scenes would shock fans, he claimed, without naming a single off-camera incident.

“If you mess with us, we won’t let you go. That has been our rule,” he said. “We will answer with our game, and we will answer you.” Indian players, he added, had already put a simpler line on social media: you will keep talking, we will keep winning. He also said India does not bother with Pakistan’s other results, including a World Cup loss to Zimbabwe in 2022, because those games do not matter to Indian fans the way this rivalry does.

The behaviour of Pak players on the field was very poor. My msg is clear. Full video on my YouTube channel. pic.twitter.com/Dm9YmTXqRG

— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) September 22, 2025

Replies under that post split on cue. One camp said India had already dragged the war onto the grass by skipping handshakes and dedicating a win to the armed forces, so a political opening would get a political reply. The other camp treated a gun mime after Pahalgam as beyond banter. Pathan had already chosen his side. He was not asking the ICC to save the mood. He was telling Rauf and Farhan that India would not swallow it.

Abhishek Sharma’s 74 Ran Down 172

India elected to field, then opened the chase as if the mime and the 6-0 sign were someone else’s problem. Abhishek Sharma hit fifty off 24 balls, with 4 fours and 4 sixes, and finished on 74 off 39, with 6 fours and 5 sixes, at a strike rate of 189.74. Shubman Gill scored 47 off 28 with 8 fours. They put on 105 in 59 balls, Abhishek 57 off 31 and Gill 47 off 28, plus 1 extra, before Gill was bowled by Ashraf at 9.5 with the score 105 for 1.

The powerplay had already gone 69 without loss. India reached 50 in 4.4 overs. Tilak Varma was 30 not out off 19. Hardik Pandya was 7 not out off 7. Abhishek was named player of the match after Abrar Ahmed finally had him caught at long-on by Rauf at 12.2. The required rate never got a chance to bite.

THE DUBAI SUPER FOURS CARD

That was India’s second win over Pakistan in the tournament, after the September 14 group match. The Super Fours night still ended as the other one had, with the result on one channel and the gestures on another. Pathan spent his airtime on the second channel. The batters had already answered on the first.

Farhan Called It Culture and Did Not Care

Farhan did not wait for Pathan to finish. Before Pakistan’s next game, against Sri Lanka, he was asked about the celebration and declined to walk it back. He said it was a moment that came to him, that he does not celebrate fifties much, and that he did not care how people took it. Aggressive cricket, he said, is for every opponent, not only India.

At the ICC hearing he pleaded not guilty and offered a longer defence. Match referee Richie Richardson sat with Sally Higgins of the ICC. Pakistan team manager Naveed Cheema attended. Farhan’s written statement treated the mime as personal, not political.

FARHAN’S THREE DEFENCES

• The moment: He told reporters the gun mime was not planned and came to him after the six that brought up fifty.
• The shrug: He said he did not know how people would take it and did not care about that reading.
• The precedent: He told the hearing MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli had mimed guns too, and that as a Pathan he knew the gesture from celebrations, including weddings.

Dhoni had mimed a gun after his 183 off 145 against Sri Lanka in Jaipur in 2005, with 15 fours and 10 sixes. That innings is a real clip in the archive. Farhan’s fifty came on September 21, five months after 26 tourists were killed in Pahalgam. Rauf’s parallel line was thinner. He asked officials what they thought 6-0 implied, and said they could not give a clear answer. He still repeated falling-jet business in the final on September 28, which is how a 30 percent fine became a ban.

The ICC Gave the Gun Mime a Warning

The BCCI filed a complaint against Farhan and Rauf. The PCB filed one against Yadav over the September 14 presentation. All three players pleaded not guilty, which forced hearings. The ICC did not publish those findings in September. It waited until November 4, 2025, then confirmed every charge under Article 2.21, conduct that brings the game into disrepute.

Farhan received an official warning and one demerit point. Rauf was fined 30 percent of his match fee and given two demerit points, then fined 30 percent again and given two more after the final. Four demerit points inside 24 months converted into two suspension points. He was ruled out of Pakistan’s ODIs against South Africa on November 4 and 6, 2025. Yadav was fined 30 percent and given two demerit points for the September 14 match. Level 1 offences cap at 50 percent of the match fee and one or two demerit points. The gun mime sat at the bottom of that scale.

THE ASIA CUP SANCTIONS

Arshdeep Singh, charged over the September 21 game under Article 2.6 for an alleged obscene or insulting gesture, was found not guilty by match referee Andy Pycroft, who had also run that Super Fours fixture. Jasprit Bumrah later accepted a warning and one demerit point after the final. The board that polices cricket had a lot of paperwork and almost no language for a rifle made out of a bat.

THE FLASHPOINTS IN DUBAI

1. April 22, 2025: Terrorists kill 26 tourists in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
2. September 14, 2025: India beats Pakistan in the group game, skips the handshake, and Yadav dedicates the win to the victims and the armed forces.
3. September 21, 2025: Farhan mimes a gun after fifty, Rauf signs 6-0 and falling jets, and India chases 172 in 18.5 overs.
4. September 22, 2025: Pathan calls the gestures needless and says India will not let them go.
5. September 28, 2025: India and Pakistan meet in the final and Rauf is again found guilty under Article 2.21.
6. November 4, 2025: The ICC publishes the sanctions; Rauf’s four demerit points become a two-ODI ban.

Pathan had already delivered his verdict in September. The ICC’s version arrived in November, after Rauf had used the extra weeks to collect a second charge. A warning for the gun mime and 30 percent for the jets was the official price of a night Pathan had described as poor behaviour and bad upbringing.

Article 2.21 Was the Only Tool Left

There is no ICC clause that names political gestures, war mimes, or a bat held like a rifle. Clothing rules block political statements on kit. Another clause blocks send-offs that provoke a dismissed batter. Neither fitted Farhan’s fifty or Rauf’s boundary work. Match officials reached for Article 2.21 because it is the leftover drawer: public misconduct, unruly public behaviour, and comments that hurt the game.

A sports lawyer’s reading of disrepute clauses is blunt. The charge holds if the conduct would lower the reputation of a person in the eyes of ordinary members of the public to a significant extent, not because a sideshow later got loud. Richardson still had to put Farhan’s wedding-culture story and Rauf’s “it meant nothing” line on a scale that tops out, at Level 1, at half a match fee. He put the gun mime on a warning.

That is the gap Pathan filled with upbringing, with “behind the scenes,” and with a rule about not letting people go. India had already taken the handshake off the table and dedicated a win to soldiers. Pakistan’s players then put a rifle and a jet tally on the same grass. Both dressing rooms used the match as a proxy. The Code of Conduct had to call all of it disrepute because it had no better noun. Rauf served the only ban the math would allow, two ODIs in November, long after Pathan had already told him the night in Dubai would not be forgotten.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do ICC Demerit Points Turn Into a Ban?

Four or more demerit points collected inside 24 months convert into suspension points, and two suspension points equal a ban from one Test or two ODIs or two T20Is, whichever comes first for that player. Demerit points stay on the record for 24 months from the day they are imposed, then they are wiped. Rauf’s two findings of two points each reached that line in one tournament and cost him the South Africa ODIs on November 4 and 6, 2025.

What Did Sahibzada Farhan Tell the ICC Hearing?

He pleaded not guilty, said the gun mime carried no political message, and told the panel he is a Pathan and that gun gestures are common in his region’s celebrations, including weddings. He also named former India captains MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli as players who had used similar gun-like celebrations, pointing in Dhoni’s case to the 183 off 145 against Sri Lanka in Jaipur in 2005.

Why Did India Skip the Handshake With Pakistan?

Yadav said the BCCI and the Indian government were aligned on playing the match, and that the team then took its own call to play and leave. He said a few things in life sit ahead of sportsman spirit, named the Pahalgam families, and dedicated the September 14 win to the armed forces on Operation Sindoor. Pakistan captain Salman Agha waited with his players for the usual line-up after that game and walked halfway toward the Indian dugout; India did not come out.

What Is Article 2.21 of the ICC Code of Conduct?

It is the catch-all for conduct that brings the game into disrepute, used when no more specific offence fits. The code’s own examples include public acts of misconduct, unruly public behaviour, and inappropriate comments detrimental to the game, and the person who files the report decides where on the scale the conduct sits, from a minor Level 1 up to an extremely serious Level 4. Farhan, Rauf, and Yadav were all charged at that leftover article because no rule names a war mime.