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Younis Khan becomes the first Pakistan batsman to score 10,000 Test runs © ESPNcricinfo Ltd
With a sweep off spinner Roston Chase in the minutes after tea on the third day at Sabina Park, Younis Khan became the first Pakistan batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket. He got there in his 208th innings – averaging a shade over 53 – the sixth fastest among the 13 batsmen to have passed the milestone.
Younis, 39, marked the moment with a broad smile, and by raising his arms to applause from his team-mates and a modest crowd in Kingston – perhaps the most low-key environment imaginable for such an achievement. A day earlier, Younis had said he might not end his 17-year international career along with his captain Misbah-ul-Haq at the conclusion of the West Indies tour, if his team asked him to play on, but later clarified that this this would be his last.
Younis had been Pakistan’s leading run-scorer in Tests since October 2015, when he went past Javed Miandad’s tally of 8832 runs during the Abu Dhabi Test against England.
He achieved 10,000 runs in about a year and a half since he became Pakistan’s highest run-maker, averaging nearly 47 in the 14 matches between then and now. He said that his accomplishments were a credit to his family and to Bob Woolmer, who coached Pakistan briefly before his demise in 2007.
“I credit this success and achievement to all my family members, especially my late father, my mother and the late Bob Woolmer, who always motivated me,” Younis said. “This is not just my achievement, this is for everyone in Pakistan, this is Pakistan’s achievement.”
Addressing the gap his retirement would leave in the side, Younis believed another player would step up and perform for Pakistan like he had done. He also spoke of how he had worked at mentoring the younger players in the side, sharing details on fitness routine and how to mentally approach the game.
“I don’t think after retirement there should any problem in the team,” Younis said. “That’s a part of life. When I came in I saw many legends retiring in 2003 and a lot of youngsters came with Bob Woolmer and we managed to come on top. So it won’t be any problem. Someone else will come and stand like me and perform.
“In last three four years I have completely shared my life with the young players. I have told them how to maintain fitness. I haven’t done anything big on my fitness but 10-15 minutes in my daily routine. It’s a routine that I have kept simple but I have done it on regular basis that it becomes a habit. Once you do something regular, it becomes your habit and things automatically fall in your way. So you have to create it and then you start performing in crisis because that is in your habit.
“I have tried my best to tell them everything – what to do, how to practice, what to do after at the match, what to do after scoring a hundred and what to do after scoring zero. So I am sure if I am not around, they will follow it to become successful. To score 10,000 runs you have to make up your mind first. If you take an example of Virat Kohli after Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement, he went on with an aim and a goal. So I am sure in the coming years he will surpass Sachin.”
Younis fell for 58, when he drove Shannon Garbiel to cover, and departed to another standing ovation from his team-mates.
Younis also expressed his aim to continue mentoring younger players, sharing his goals of setting up an academy and gaining coaching qualification that would allow him to work with age-group teams.
“I have done my Level-2 coaching course with an intent to do it further, take it to level 3 and level 4. I want to associate myself with younger teams like Under-15s, Under-19s because that is the spot where coaching should be done and mentoring at that level is a difficult test. So if in the future I manage to work with the PCB, I would want to start from there and help produce players.”
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