Younis Khan was born in Mardan in 1977. In 1979 his father moved to Karachi when he took up a job in Pakistan Steel Mills. The family, including Younis and his five brothers, followed a year later, and it is in this coastal metropolis that Younis learnt his craft.

His brothers were also good cricketers, especially his eldest brother Ayub Khan, who was a dashing wicketkeeper-batsman, with a particular penchant for the sweep shot that he played really well, even against fast bowlers. His secret was to get to the pitch of the ball, not allowing it much bounce, thereby making the shot safe, protecting himself both from getting struck by the ball and from a possible dismissal off a mis-hit. It was a technique that Younis picked up from him and mastered. Younis would accompany his brothers to their matches and was often drafted in as a substitute when one of the players was injured or wanted a break. Younis took on this role with relish, learning how to dive, even on dusty grounds, and developed a safe pair of hands as a catcher.

As his batting also began to bloom, his talent was spotted and got him into the Malir Gymkhana team in 1993. This was a club with its own distinct culture, which served as a nursery for Karachi cricket, producing many famous players like Saeed Anwar, Rashid Latif and Taslim Arif. The coach, Waheed Mirza, who was renowned for a world record opening wicket stand in first-class cricket, practiced a philosophy that required batsman to play at varying positions in the batting order, so that they would face different types of bowlers and encounter different match situations facing the team. This approach fostered sound technical skills, the ability to strategically analyze a game’s position and respond to it and the expertise necessary to counter both pace and spin. These lessons would serve Younis well.

Partly because he failed to make it into first class cricket in Karachi and partly because his father was relocating back to his hometown after retirement, Younis returned to Mardan for a few years and made his first-class debut for Peshawar in 1999. He was an immediate success, making 514 runs in his first season, at an average of 73.42, including two centuries, one of which was a double hundred. The next season was again a highly successful one, with Younis piling up 1315 runs, average 77.35, with six hundreds. His performance won him selection for the national Test side in the opening Test of a home series versus Sri Lanka. Younis demonstrated his resilience and ability with a combative century in Pakistan’s second innings, becoming the seventh Pakistani batsman to make a hundred on Test debut.

Younis had a bumpy career ride over the next few years, with brilliant stints in between patches of relatively indifferent form. He struggled to find his own batting identity, unable to hold a regular place in the side. The first big injection of self-belief came during a Test versus New Zealand in Auckland when he made 91 and 149 not out. In his own words, “I thought, I don't want to be Inzamam, I don't want to be Miandad, I don't want to be Imran. I want to be Younis Khan. Whatever my style is, however I am, I want to stick to it. What I am, I am." Easier said than done, but the resolve was beginning to germinate. It was lent further support and credence by knocks of 153 and 71 in a Test against the West Indies at Sharjah, but consistency still eluded him.

For Younis, Bob Woolmer’s appointment as the national coach in October 2004, proved to be a real watershed. In 28 Tests till then he had scored 1680 runs at an average of 37.33 runs per innings, but now he truly blossomed, gaining confidence through securing an established place in the batting line-up, and in the next 18 Tests accumulated 2195 runs at an average of 66.51. This purple patch included 7 centuries, including scores of 267and 84 not out in a Test against India at Bengaluru, 199 versus India at Lahore, 83 and 194 in the next Test against them at Faisalabad and 173 versus England at Leeds.

His best performance was, however, still to come. In February 2009, playing against Sri Lanka at the National Stadium, Karachi, Younis joined that rarefied breed of 27 batsmen, including 4 Pakistanis, who have scored triple centuries in Test cricket. His knock of 313 was studded with 27 fours and 4 sixes and resulted in Younis heading the ICC’s Test Batting Ranking list. Incidentally, Younis also captained Pakistan in this match, becoming the 6th captain to score a triple Test hundred. Younis had by now played 59 Tests scoring 5129 runs at an average of 51.80, including 16 centuries.

Younis resigned the Test captaincy later in 2009, following an altercation with the PCB, and took a break of ten Test matches, before returning to the national team with a bang in October 2010, compiling a century versus South Africa in the UAE. He continued to score heavily and consistently against all opponents, reaching double centuries versus Bangladesh in 2011 and against Zimbabwe in 2013. The 2014-15 season began with a knock of 177 versus Sri Lanka followed by a stretch of Bradmanesque scoring in the UAE. Three consecutive hundreds versus the Aussies, included a century in each innings in the opening Test at Dubai, followed by an innings of 213 at Abu Dhabi. Another hundred in the next match, this time versus New Zealand, meant that Younis had scored 4 centuries in 3 consecutive Tests.

A year later in July 2015, in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, Younis played one of the most remarkable innings of his illustrious career. Pakistan were set a victory target of 377, and had lost two wickets for 13 runs when Younis joined Shan Masood at the crease and shepherded him through a 242 run stand for the third wicket. This was followed by an unbroken 137 run partnership for the fourth wicket with Misbah which saw Pakistan achieve an improbable and unexpected win. This was Pakistan’s highest ever run chase and the sixth highest in Test history. Younis, who remained unbeaten on 171, had yet again demonstrated his unquestioned class and the much vaunted ability of excelling under extreme pressure.

In his very next match, in the first Test of a three Test series versus England in the UAE, Younis overtook Javed Miandad as Pakistan’s leading Test scorer. The shadows were now lengthening for his Test career, but Younis continued to enthrall his fans with a scintillating double hundred against England at the Oval in 2016 that contained 31 fours and 4 sixes. The 2016-17 season was his last in Test cricket, and Younis bid adieu with a century against the West Indies in Abu Dhabi and a sterling innings of 175 not out versus Australia at Sydney.

Younis was a run scorer par excellence. He did not have the languid fluidity of Mohammad Yousuf, nor the autocratic, eloquent power and grace of Inzamam, but he had a style that was effective, albeit, unique and unconventional. He played spin superbly and Test cricket has rarely seen a better exponent of the sweep shot. He could play it in two different ways. The conventional approach, had him down on one knee, with the body upright, getting to the pitch of the ball to neutralize its potential movement off the turf and thus minimize any chances of error, but there was also a second version. The leg would extend even further down the pitch and an exaggerated crouch would bring his chest down to within touching distance of the knee, enabling him to reach lengths and deploy angles that no other player could match. Supple wrists and a wiry, lithe torso, endowed him with unusual extensile flexibility, enabling him to reach deliveries that other batsman would simply leave alone. It was this ductile elasticity that produced his trademark backfoot cover drive, played with his arms stretched, well away from his trunk, feet off the ground and in the air, but the body, remarkably, still perfectly balanced in near balletic grace, as the ball came off the meat of the bat to find its way to the fence.

Younis is a collector of Test records. He is Pakistan’s highest scorer in Tests with 10099 runs and his 34 Test hundreds are also a national record. He is the sixth fastest batsman to reach the 10,000 run mark, having got there in 208 innings. His tally of 5 centuries in the fourth innings of a Test is an unrivaled world best. His average of a century per 3.47 Tests is the third best in cricket history, while 50.75% of his fifties have been converted into centuries, the fourth highest conversion rate ever for batsmen with 20 centuries or more.

His six Test double centuries represent a joint best for Pakistan, along with Javed Miandad. He has been involved in 63 century partnerships which is a Pakistani record and his Test batting average of 52.05 is the 3rd best in Pakistan’s history. Amongst Pakistani batsmen his 70 sixes in Tests are second only to Misbah-ul-Haq’s 81, while his tally of 1082 fours is surpassed only by Inzamam’s 1105.

Younis scored 11 centuries after the age of 35, which is just one century below the world record of 12. These 11 centuries were scored in 27 Tests, or a century every 2.45 Tests, which is a world best. Out of the 15 fifties that he has scored after the age of thirty five, 11 have been converted into centuries, a conversion rate of 73.3%, again a world record.

Younis is the common factor in the two most successful partnership pairings of Pakistan’s Test cricket history. With Misbah his stands gathered 3213 runs at an average of 68.36 runs per partnership, while in tandem with Mohammad Yousuf the aggregate is 3137 runs at an average of 78.42 runs per stand.

Younis is the only Pakistani, and one of just 13 batsmen, to have scored centuries against 9 Test playing nations. He is also the only player to have scored a Test century in 11 countries, including the UAE, that have hosted Test matches. Along with Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting, Younis is one of the top three players with the highest number of centuries per Test series. Alongside Herbert Sutcliffe he is also the only batsman in Test history to score three consecutive centuries against Australia.

Younis has often been Pakistan’s man of crisis and 19 of his 34 centuries have been scored in matches that Pakistan eventually won. In these matches he has totaled 4910 runs at an average of 74.39, compared to 5189 runs with an average 43.24, in matches lost or drawn. He averages over 40 runs per innings in every position that he has batted in, from No. 3 to No. 7, in the batting order.

As a fielder his 139 Test catches is the highest by any Pakistani player. He also holds the world record for the most catches taken by a substitute fielder in an innings or a match, with 4 in a single innings against Bangladesh in 2001.

The achievements of Younis extend to ODIs and T20Is as well. In ODIs he scored 7249 runs with 7 centuries, while he led Pakistan to victory in the 2009 T20 World Cup.

Unassuming and modest, with an ever-ready smile, his persona belies his celebrity status. His batting pursued a similar pattern, effective rather than flamboyant, he got the job done with a minimum of fuss. A key lynchpin of Pakistan’s batting over many years, Younis was both its cudgel and its crutch, switching modes to suit the circumstance, a true contender for the tag of the best batsman Pakistan has ever produced. On statistical numbers alone his claim would be hard to deny.

Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books.   salmanfaridilnh@hotmail.com