Younis Khan — Pakistan's greatest batsman?

Younis became the second Pakistani batsman to score two hundreds in a Test on foreign soil.

Younis Khan raises his bat after completing his century, his second one of the match © Getty Images

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.

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