With his twin tons, Younis Khan has brought Pakistan to the brink of victory at Dubai. Abhishek Mukherjee tries to evaluate the batsman in numbers.
Younis Khan has the most Test hundreds for Pakistan. Younis is also the first Pakistan batsman to score two hundreds in a Test outside Pakistan. Put a cut-off of a thousand Test runs, and Younis’ average of 52.48 is marginally second on the list, behind only Javed Miandad’s 52.57. They are also the only Pakistanis to feature in the list of top ten averages with a 7,000-run cut-off.
When Arunabha Sengupta and I got together to create an all-time Pakistan XI, we were at the receiving end of criticism. Few are satisfied with XIs, hence the flak was expected. One of the arguments we were up against was the inclusion of Younis over Zaheer Abbas and Mohammad Yousuf.
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How good a batsman is Younis? Let us go for that oft-used parameter — records away from home — for batsmen after World War II. Let us also leave out Zimbabwe and Bangladesh as venues. Some may argue that Sri Lanka were pushovers in their early days, but it must be remembered here that of their first ten decided series at home they had won four and lost six; this included series wins against India, New Zealand, and England.
Let us come to the most astonishing statistic: of the 92 Tests Younis has played, 63 has been outside his home country. The count of 63 excludes the ten Tests played in Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Younis averages 46.97 away from home. The number is impressive but not phenomenal. The phenomenal aspect of it is that he is one of only ten men to have scored over 5,000 runs away from home. All others, barring Viv Richards, have gone past the 10,000-run mark.
Batsmen with 5,000 Test runs:
Player
Overseas runs
Career runs
%
Younis Khan
5,026
7,819
64.3%
Viv Richards
5,404
8,540
63.3%
Rahul Dravid
6,655
13,288
50.1%
Sunil Gavaskar
5,055
10,122
49.9%
Allan Border
5,431
11,174
48.6%
Sachin Tendulkar
7,645
15,921
48.0%
Steve Waugh
5,066
10,927
46.4%
Brian Lara
5,514
11,953
46.1%
Jacques Kallis
5,688
13,289
42.8%
Ricky Ponting
5,578
13,378
41.7%
Miandad, the only other Pakistani to have scored over 4,000 Test runs away from home, had scored 8,832 career runs. The corresponding proportion for him, thanks to 4,351 overseas runs, reads 49.3%. There can hardly be doubt over the sheer volume of Tests he has played overseas.
Some may argue that Younis’ overseas runs have a lot to do with the fact that a chunk of them have been played at UAE. Let us, then, level the battlegrounds and consider only career averages against Australia, England, India, and South Africa (the four most difficult countries to travel) at their den in the 21st century. How have the top batsmen fared in comparison to the greats and potential greats?
21st century batsmen with 1,500 overseas Test runs in Australia, India, South Africa, and Sri Lanka
Player
M
R
Ave
100s
Hashim Amla
19
2,216
76.41
9
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
29
2,514
54.65
7
Sachin Tendulkar
31
2,783
52.51
7
Alastair Cook
27
2,441
51.94
9
Graeme Smith
29
2,534
49.69
7
Younis Khan
22
1,986
49.65
5
AB de Villiers
21
1,588
49.63
4
Rahul Dravid
32
2,609
47.44
7
Jacques Kallis
29
2,225
46.35
6
Matthew Hayden
27
2,119
45.09
5
Despite the odds heavily stacked against him, Younis has never flinched from his responsibilities. He has converted his fifties into hundreds, and has become the highest century-getter for Pakistan — more than Miandad or Inzamam-ul-Haq despite having scored approximately a thousand runs less than each. The numbers for the top four Pakistan batsmen tell the story (Saleem Malik, the next on the list, is on 15 hundreds).
Most Test hundreds by Pakistani batsmen:
Player
M
R
Ave
100s
Dismissals/100
Younis Khan
92
7,820
52.48
26
5.73
Inzamam-ul-Haq
119
8,829
50.16
25
7.04
Mohammad Yousuf
90
7,530
52.29
24
6.00
Javed Miandad
124
8,832
52.57
23
7.30
Do note the frequency at which Younis scores his hundreds. The count of 5.73 is quite high on the list of batsmen who have scored 26 or more hundreds.
Most Test hundreds:
Player
M
R
Ave
100s
Dismissals/100
Don Bradman
52
6,996
99.94
29
2.41
Jacques Kallis
166
13,289
55.37
45
5.33
Garry Sobers
93
8,032
57.78
26
5.35
Kumar Sangakkara
128
11,988
58.76
37
5.51
Matthew Hayden
103
8,625
50.74
30
5.67
Younis Khan
92
7,819
52.48
26
5.73
Sachin Tendulkar
200
15,921
53.79
51
5.80
Sunil Gavaskar
125
10,122
51.12
34
5.82
Michael Clarke
106
8,242
51.19
27
5.96
Ricky Ponting
168
13,378
51.85
41
6.29
Brian Lara
131
11,953
52.89
34
6.65
Steve Waugh
168
10,927
51.06
32
6.69
Mahela Jayawardene
149
11,814
49.85
34
6.97
Rahul Dravid
164
13,288
52.31
36
7.06
Graeme Smith
117
9,265
48.26
27
7.11
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
158
11,684
53.11
30
7.33
Allan Border
156
11,174
50.56
27
8.19
Let us, then, return to our original argument: is Younis Khan Pakistan’s greatest batsman? We have already seen Younis having the second-best average (marginally behind Miandad’s) among Pakistanis. Let us now check figures away from Pakistan.
Best averages for Pakistani batsmen away from Pakistan (1,000 Test runs):
Player
M
R
Ave
100s
Younis Khan
73
5,921
50.61
19
Misbah-ul-Haq
44
3,212
48.67
5
Inzamam-ul-Haq
70
5,120
47.85
14
Mohammad Yousuf
58
4,463
46.01
12
Javed Miandad
64
4,351
45.80
9
Ah, I guess we hear the bloated argument again — the this-average-has-been-bloated-by-his-records-in-UAE one. Let us drop neutral venues and check again:
Player
M
R
Ave
100s
Younis Khan
54
4,345
50.52
12
Inzamam-ul-Haq
67
4,820
46.80
13
Javed Miandad
64
4,351
45.80
9
Saeed Anwar
27
2,135
45.43
7
Misbah-ul-Haq
27
1,907
45.40
3
To think of it — they have dropped him from the 50-over side!
(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Deputy Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)
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