Younis Khan

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Younus Khan
Pakistan
Personal information
Full name	Mohammad Younus Khan
Nickname	Younis, YK
Born	29 November 1975 (1975-11-29)
	Mardan, Pakistan
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Role	Batsman
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm leg-spin
International information
Test debut ( cap 159)	26 February 2000: v  Sri Lanka
Last Test	8 October 2007: v South Africa
ODI debut ( cap 131)	13 February 2000: v  Sri Lanka
Last ODI	29 October 2007: v South Africa
ODI shirt no.	75
Domestic team information
Years	Team
2007	Yorkshire (squad no. 75)
2005	Nottinghamshire
1999–2007	Habib Bank Limited
1998–2005	Peshawar
Career statistics
	Tests	ODIs	FC	LA
Matches	57	159	120	188
Runs scored	4736	4345	8692	5009
Batting average	49.33	31.94	50.24	31.90
100s/50s	15/19	3/28	27/35	4/32
Top score	267	144	267	144
Balls bowled	264	97	1573	569
Wickets	2	1	20	18
Bowling average	84.50	106.00	49.30	29.72
5 wickets in innings	0	0	0	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	1/24	1/24	4/52	3/5
Catches/ stumpings	64/–	8-/–	132/–	101/–
As of 12 October 2007 Source: cricketarchive.com

Mohammad Younus Khan (Urdu/ Pashto: محمد یونس خان), (born November 29, 1975 in Mardan, North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan) is a Pakistani cricketer and member of the Pakistan national cricket team since February 2000. Younus's name is often spelled Younis Khan, but he has been quoted as saying "My name is Younus Khan. I tell that to people everywhere, but they don’t listen!"

Career

International career

Younus made his international debut in an ODI against Sri Lanka at Karachi in February 2000, and has since played over 150 ODIs for Pakistan. He has also played 54 Tests. Younus was one of the few batsmen who retained his place in the team after Pakistan's disastrous World Cup campaign in 2003, but lost it soon after due to a string of poor scores in the home series against Bangladesh and South Africa. He came back for the one-day series against India, but failed to cement a place in the Test side.

It was his return to the side in October 2004, at the pivotal one-down, against Sri Lanka in Karachi that laid the groundwork for his emergence as a force in Pakistan cricket. He was the top run-getter in the disastrous 3-0 whitewash in Australia immediately after and on the tour of India, for which Younus was elevated to vice-captain, he blossomed. After a horror start to the series he came back strongly, capping things off with 267 in the final Test. It was his highest Test score and came off 504 balls in the first innings, to set up a series levelling victory in Bangalore.

As well as being an accomplished batsman, Younus is also a skilled slip fielder and a very occasional leg-spin bowler. He has performed particularly well outside Pakistan, including on tours of Australia, India, England and Sri Lanka. In the six Tests he has played against India, Younus averages an exceptional 106, the highest average against India by a Pakistani. Apart from his 267 at Bangalore. Younus also made 147 at Kolkata in 2005 and a pair of centuries during India's trip to Pakistan in 2006. More importantly, the tour to India also showcased his potential as a future captain of Pakistan and his energetic and astute leadership has impressed many people. Also in 2006, Younus made a century in the third Test against England at Headingley. On the 22nd of January 2007, he scored a matchwinning 67 not out in the 4th innings to guide Pakistan to victory over South Africa in Port Elizabeth. The five wicket win levelled the series at 1-1.

In 2005, he was one of the 15 nominees for the ICC Test Player of the Year. He is the second fastest Pakistani in terms of innings to reach 4000 Test runs, behind Javed Miandad. Younus reached the milestone in 87 innings, just one more than Sachin Tendulkar took.

Younus Khan's highest position in the LG ICC's Test Batting Rankings is third, which he achieved after the third test against England in 2006. . His ranking score of 856 is the fourth highest achieved by a Pakistani batsmen after Mohammad Yousuf (933), Javed Miandad (885) and Inzamam-ul-Haq (870).

Captaincy situation

Younus had been tipped as a future captain of the national team by former captain Imran Khan. He first led Pakistan against the West Indies in 2005. In September 2006, he was offered the position of captain for the course of the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, following the suspension of Inzamam ul Haq. He turned down the offer, stating he didn't want to be a "dummy captain". However, on the morning of October 7, 2006, the Pakistan Cricket Board announced that Khan would lead his team in the tournament. Following the resignation of Inzamam after the side's exit from the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Khan was offered the captaincy on a permanent basis, but turned it down. He blamed the angry reaction by the Pakistani public to side's early exit from the tournament.

Domestic career

In 2005, Younus played county cricket for Nottinghamshire in England. In the 2007 English domestic cricket season, played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club as an overseas player . In doing so he was the third overseas Asian cricketer to play for Yorkshire following Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh, and was succeeded by fellow Pakistani Inzamam.

On his County Championship debut for Yorkshire, he made a disappointing 4 runs from 4 balls in his first innings, being bowled by Rikki Clarke of Surrey, and just 12 in his second innings. However, on his one-day debut in the Friends Provident Trophy, Younus hit a superb 100 from 92 balls against Nottinghamshire to lead Yorkshire to victory.

He made his first County Championship century, 106 off 151 balls, for Yorkshire against Hampshire at the Rose Bowl in the third match of the season and followed it up with an unbeaten double hundred, 202 off 290 balls, in the second innings to steer Yorkshire to a confident declaration. In doing so, Younus became the first Yorkshire player to score a century and a double century in the same match. Younus also made a useful contribution bowling during Hampshire's second innings, picking up four wickets for just 52 runs, however despite his and the team's efforts the match ended in a draw. He repeated the feat of an unbeaten double century at Scarborough in a rain-affected drawn match with Kent. He played a superb innings to finish on 217* off just 252 balls with 18 fours and 6 sixes. He left Yorkshire following the 8-wicket drubbing of Glamorgan Dragons. However, the nature of the victory denied him of the chance to sign off in a fitting matter as he was not required to bat.

Playing style

Younus is regarded as one of the best players of spin bowling in the world, being particularly strong on the leg side. His favourite and trademark shot is the flick, but it has also been his shortcoming, with him being particularly prone to falling lbw during the early stages of his innings. He is also prone to getting down on one knee and driving extravagantly. But this flamboyance is coupled with grit. One of his main weaknesses is playing away from the body, he also has a tendency to leave straight balls, a trait that has been exploited by bowlers in the past, particularly by the Australian attack. Along with Mohammad Yousuf and Inzamam-ul-Haq, he has formed a formidable middle order batting line up for Pakistan.

Younus is a skillful infielder, with a report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the third highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket (joint with Andrew Symonds), with the highest success rate.

Statistics

Younus Khan's career performance graph.

The following tables illustrate a summary of the Test and ODI centuries scored by Younus Khan.

• In the column Runs, * indicates being not out.
• The column title Match refers to the Match Number of his career.

Test centuries

One-Day International centuries

Personal tragedies

Younus had to deal with a number of deaths in his family during 2005 and 2006. Earlier in 2005 he had to fly back from a tour to Australia after his father had died. Later in the year during the England tour to Pakistan, Younus' eldest brother, Mohammed Sharif Khan, aged 41, died in a car accident in Ukraine. Another older brother, Farman Ali Khan was only 39 when killed in a car accident in Germany, in December, 2006.

Younus was batting in the second ODI against West Indies in Faisalabad when the news of his brother's death reached the team management. Younus only came to know about the situation after he returned to the pavilion at the end of his innings. Younus, immediately, left for his home town Mardan and did not participate in any of the remaining matches.

Younus also mentioned his grief at the death of Bob Woolmer in March 2007 after Pakistan's exit from the World Cup. He stated that he saw Bob as a father figure after the loss of his own father and that he was able to share many personal thoughts with the cricket coach.