Indian cinema has always celebrated cricket. With movies like Lagaan, Iqbal to Kai Po Che, the connection between the two has only grown stronger. Several Indian cricketers have been featured in Bollywood, take for instance Ajay Jadeja, Salim Durrani, Salil Ankola, Kapil Dev, Sandeep Patil, Vinod Kambli, and many others. Hence, Bollywood and cricket have always been inseparable. But this time the Tamil film industry is going to witness this magic for the first time.

Stepping into Tamil Industry

Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan made it official by setting foot on a completely new journey, i.e, Kollywood. The left-arm pacer took to Twitter where he announced that he is all set to make his debut in a Tamil film tentatively titled Vikram 58, directed by Ajay Gnanamuthu, which will feature popular South Indian actor Chiyaan Vikram. Gnanamuthu is famous for his works like Demonte Colony (2015) and Imaikkaa Nodigal (2018).

Though there is not much clarity on what role the cricketer is about to play in the movie, Pathan’s Twitter video post caption read: New venture, new challenge looking forward to it. Not just that, legendary spinner Harbhajan Singh will make his acting debut in a Santhanam  Tamil film titled Dikkiloona. However, there have been a few revelations regarding him playing the role of a police officer in the film but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Their cricket Career

Speaking of his cricket career, Pathan had last played a T20I match against Sri Lanka in 2012 in Pallekele and did not play an international match since then. Irfan Pathan has played 29 Test matches and scalped 100 wickets. He has played 102 ODIs where he managed to take 173 wickets. Bagging six half-centuries and a century to his name in the Test Cricket, he has always shown great promise with the bat, that too, by scoring 1,105 runs.

On the other hand, Harbhajan Singh had last played a match for India in 2016. The spinner has played 236 ODIs, 103 Tests and 28 T20Is. He was successful to take 417 wickets in Test Cricket and has bagged  260 wickets in the 50-over format.

Tamil Language

Now talking about the language, that will not be a problem.  Both the players are familiar with the Tamil language. It comes from their experience of being in Chennai Super Kings in IPL.

So far netizens are finding it hard to contain their excitement over the news. They have been flooding in social media sites with best wishes and congratulatory messages.