Are we having this discussion now? You know, where we attempt to rank Younis Khan among Pakistan’s finest batsmen?
These discussions are incredibly frustrating by nature, like an itch that never goes, but they are also irresistible, right?
So put the numbers out there first. His hundred on Wednesday against Australia was his 25th in Tests, placing him alongside Inzamam-ul-Haq as the Pakistani with most tons. It also made him the first Pakistani to have scored a hundred against every Test-playing nation.
Read more: Younis Khan ‘proud to be first Pakistani’ to score centuries against all Test nations
Only Javed Miandad and Inzamam have more Test runs; among his countrymen he has the third-highest average of all time.
Away from Pakistan, where he has played only 19 Tests, and also his default home of the UAE, he averages 50.
In short, he does not lose out in comparison with any of Pakistan’s greatest.
Some will argue he is not as decisive a game-changer as Inzamam, an assessment backed by the statisticians at Impact Index who say that Inzamam is the highest-impact Asian batsman of all time.
He is not as versatile as Miandad, others might say, a man who was a genius over 50 overs. Younis, whatever he may think, has never quite convinced in ODIs.
Aesthetically he is no Mohammad Yousuf, a man in whom the richest traditions of beautiful Asian batsmanship burnt bright. Younis is no ugly grafter, but he is no peacock either. An idiosyncratic, fidgety style might be the polite way of putting it.
Hanif Mohammad’s numbers may look ordinary now, but none of Pakistan’s best had to bat with such poverty around him.
Except maybe Younis – especially since Inzamam and Yousuf, with whom he formed such a formidable trio, left the scene.
It is in this time, the era of Misbah-ul-Haq that Younis has pushed himself right up in that conversation and made it into an era of his own.
Has anyone brought as great a sense of security and comfort as Younis to this flimsiest batting order? It is difficult to remember one who has had to nurture as many young batsmen around him, or who has figured in as many critical partnerships.
There is something more there, right? Some heart, an inner struggle that maybe puts him beyond all of them.
Miandad loved fighting. Sometimes he loved it too much, and the idea that he could engineer a fight spurred him on.
Younis goes about it differently, but the same forces switch him on and, unlike Miandad, he does not have fighters alongside him.
He wants to fight. Winning the fight may not be as important and he may not win all, but fronting up for it and not hiding lower down the order, or avoiding a tough attack or surface, is what is important.
Coming in at seven for two, as he did in the morning, is what gets him going; that cannot be said of too many Pakistani batsmen.
He let slip as much later, speaking about that first session when he barely scored any runs with genuine glee and relish. The Australians were coming in hard at him. Michael Clarke was throwing up all kinds of challenges. Pakistan were in a mess.
And Younis loved it, which maybe, just maybe, leaves him in a league of his own.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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