For a player widely acknowledged as one of his country’s finest ever batsman, scorer of more than 10,000 Test Match runs, captain of the Pakistan side in all three formats, and with a Test triple hundred, it is perhaps surprising that in his brief tenure with Nottinghamshire, Younis Khan is primarily remembered for his bowling.
When Steven Fleming was called up to captain New Zealand for their tour to Zimbabwe in July 2005, Notts signed Younis to fill the gap. Younis played in five Championship matches, commencing on 6 July v Surrey at Trent Bridge and ending on 6 September v Gloucester, also at Trent Bridge. He also appeared in three List-A matches.
He created a minor sensation on his debut in the Totesport competition – introduced into the attack as a fourth change bowler, he captured a wicket with his first ball and ended with three for five off 3.1 overs.
In 131 One-Day games before arriving at Trent Bridge, Younis had captured just 10 wickets in total! In the next Totesport game in which he bowled, he took three more wickets, the victims being well-known Northants batsmen, Love, Sales and Shafayat.
In contrast, Younis achieved only moderate success for Notts with the bat, a top score of 53 his only half-century in seven innings – this from a man with 34 Test hundreds!
He was born in Peshawar on 28 February 1978, making his First-Class debut in Pakistan in 1996/97 and his Test debut in 2003/04. One of cricket’s new generation of travelling players, Younis Khan has represented at least 16 different teams around the world.
Wisden made him India Cricketer of the Year in 2016 (remarkable for a player from Pakistan) and one of the five Cricketers of the Year in 2017, the year in which he announced his retirement from international cricket. Soon after retiring he was offered, but declined, the opportunity to coach the emergent Afghanistan national side. In August 2020, Younis was back in England as batting coach to the Pakistan side that played a three-test series behind closed doors during the Covid pandemic.
August 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 586
See Younis Khan's career stats here