Fallah’s last official match was a Vijay Hazare Trophy (50-overs) game for Uttarakhand in March 2021. Having moved to Uttarakhand for the 2020-21 season, he returned to Maharashtra and made himself available for selection in all three formats, but didn’t get a chance to resume his career.
Now 39 and head coach of Nashik Titans in the Maharashtra Premier League, Fallah has made his retirement official.
Fallah traced an unusual path to professional cricket, never playing any representative age-group cricket, and making his way into club cricket via eye-catching performances in tennis-ball tournaments. He made his Maharashtra debut at 22 and immediately made an impact, picking up a match-winning second-innings six-wicket haul against Himachal Pradesh in November 2007. He quickly established himself as the leader of Maharashtra’s attack, picking up 20-plus wickets in every Ranji season from 2007-08 to 2014-15.
At the time of retirement, Fallah is the second-highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy among left-arm fast bowlers, with only Jaydev Unadkat (316) above him. Hiralal Gaekwad, whose Ranji Trophy career stretched from 1941 to 1963, picked up 278 wickets, but he bowled a mixture of left-arm spin and seam.