All-rounder Yusuf Pathan was left out of the Baroda Ranji Trophy squad after just one match not because of form but because he failed a dope test, the Indian Express reported on Tuesday.
The big-hitting batsmen, who has played 57 One-day Internationals and 22 Twenty20 Internationals, last featured for Baroda in the Ranji Trophy game in October against Andhra in which he manged to score just four runs and did not get any wicket.
The report said Pathan took a medicine that contained the banned substance but failed to apply for a Theapeutic Use Exemption. “There was a substance which was in the medicine which falls under the banned list. He took that particular medicine on the advice of the team doctor. He was not aware that the medicine he took had something which was banned,” a source close to the cricketer was quoted as saying.
Pathan is the second Indian cricketer to have failed a dope test. In 2013, Delhi medium-pacer Pradeep Sangwan was banned for 18 months after he returned a positive test.