Younis Khan a fighter for the ages

There are cricketers who play and then there are cricketers who fight.

Younis Khan belongs firmly in the second category.

His career, which started seventeen years ago in Rawalpindi with a gritty hundred on a leap day, has been as much as about fight and comebacks as it has been about runs and milestones.

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He is the country’s most prolific runs scorer and just 36 runs short of becoming the first Pakistan player to 10,000 runs.

He has the most hundreds (34) by any Pakistan batsman and is the only man on the planet with a hundred in each of the 11 nations that have hosted Tests.

But put aside all those runs, milestones and records that distinguish him from others, it is his ability to fight and rise from the lowest of lows which sets him apart.

Younis came to Australia with just 16 runs behind him in his past four innings in New Zealand, statistically the worst series of his career. Many feared that a prolific career was coming to an end.

And when the 39-year-old started the Commonwealth Bank Test series with a golden duck in Brisbane, you may have been forgiven if you thought his career was over and he should hang up his boots on the spot.

The calls to retire became loud. But Younis fought. He fought in the second innings and scored 65 in a chase of 490. He tried to fight again in Melbourne with a 21 and 24. The calls for retirement started to build again.  

But Younis had the stomach for another fight.

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He walked to the crease in Sydney with Pakistan 2-6 and trailing by whopping 532. He didn’t succumb under pressure this time and kept fighting while everyone, save Azhar Ali, kept throwing wickets around him.

He ended the innings unbeaten on 175, his maiden hundred-plus score on Australian soil.

Younis and Australia have a strange relationship. Even when he was at his peak and scoring runs by the bucket load, he was undermined by his record against Australia, the toughest team and a yardstick to judge batsmen in the eyes of Pakistanis.

His Test record against Australia until 2014 was 382 runs in six Tests at an average of 31.83, his lowest against any team at that time.

The critics thought he was no good because he was not good against Australia. Never mind he didn’t get a chance to score against them for nearly a decade.

When he did get the chance, in Dubai two years ago, he scored a hundred in the first innings - becoming the first Pakistan batsman to score a century against all other nine Test teams.

He scored one more in the second innings, becoming the first batsman to score twin centuries against Australia in 40 years. 

That didn’t sate his hunger and he followed it with a double century in the second Test in Abu Dhabi.

By the end of the series his average against Australia had surged to 56.66.

But even after that he was underestimated for not having scored a hundred in Australia.

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His hundred in Sydney has shown that even at 39 years of age, his fighting spirit has not diminished and it is a lesson to youngsters to never give up.

It may still go in a losing cause but it has vindicated Younis’ ability to fight and resist.

Younis started his career fighting to save Pakistan and perhaps one of these days, it will end in the same fashion too.

In the second innings of his Test debut against Sri Lanka in 2000, Younis came on crease with the team five wickets down and trailing by two runs and scored 107 runs to put Pakistan 219 runs ahead.

It was a ultimately losing cause, but also the first of many fighting efforts.

"The hundred I scored on Test debut in 2000 is the most memorable and best innings of my career,” Younis said in Sydney on Friday.

"I am a proud Pakistani that at least I made a hundred in Australia. I had scored an 87 in Melbourne in 2004. It was in the Boxing Day Test. I remember that moment.

"It was my wish to have at least one or two centuries in Australia. Suddenly my wish has come true so I am a happy man at the moment.

"I love to play hard cricket.

"If somebody criticizes me I take it very positively. I don’t respond verbally, I do so with my performances.

"I feel a little bit of pressure at the same time as well, from those kind of comments. But at the same time I make myself calm and cool and it works for me. Nothing special, I just try hard, focus more. Suddenly things go my way as well."

Younis is just 36 runs away from becoming first Pakistan batsman to amass 10,000 runs in Tests.

It is very possible that he could reach that milestone during his last innings in Australia tomorrow.

Should he not make it, Pakistan’s next Test assignment is in Caribbean in April followed by a series in Bangladesh in July.

After scoring 175 in Sydney, Younis maybe has assured himself and the fans that he will be on those flights to the West Indies and Bangladesh.

“It all depends on my team and what they want from me,” Younis said when he was asked about his future plans.

“I’m very near to 10,000 runs and it will be a big achievement for a Pakistani.

“I all depends on my team, the PCB and how they want me. I will be in touch with them and as they tell me, what kind of energy and what they need from me, from that I will decide how long to play. My body is giving me a good response at the moment.

“When I leave the field and when I retire, it is my wish that they remember me as a fighter who fought for his country and his team-mates.”