As the 1990s began, Javed Miandad’s career was drawing to a close. He had been the mainstay of Pakistan’s middle order batting since the mid 1970s and there was considerable apprehension about what would happen after his departure from the international cricket arena. However, fate had something special in store for Pakistan. The 25 year period from 1992 to 2017 produced an exceptional quartet of middle order batsmen, who, collectively, were perhaps unmatched in Pakistan’s history on the international cricket stage.
Inzamam ul Haq (1992-2007)
This genial giant with an air of casual, unruffled nonchalance, gained recognition on the big stage in the 1992 World Cup. A superb 60 off 37 balls won Pakistan their semi-final against New Zealand and a quick-fire 42 off 35 balls helped Pakistan reach what became a winning score in the final.
Successes on the Test arena soon followed. A fearless player against fast bowling, Inzamam became a true match winner for Pakistan, the batsman the team leaned on in times of crises. At Karachi, against Australia in 1994, his 58 not out and a last wicket stand with Mushtaq Ahmed squeezed out a narrow one wicket win. In 2003, at Multan, he saved the team from an embarrassing home defeat against Bangladesh with 138 not out in his team’s score of 262 for 9, as Pakistan just managed to cross the winning post.
In the 49 Tests that Pakistan won during Inzamam’s career he scored 4690 runs at an average of 78.16. In home Tests won by Pakistan the figures are even better, as he scored 1983 runs at an amazing average of 94.42, second only to Don Bradman.
When all three forms of the international game are considered, Test cricket, ODI’s and T20s, Inzamam has the highest tally of all Pakistani batsmen with a total of 20,580 runs at an average of 43.22, a strike rate of 63.96 per 100 balls, 35 centuries and 129 fifties. His 164 scores of fifty and above is a Pakistan record. His run aggregate includes 2076 fours and 193 sixes, both of which are again national bests.
His Test cricket partnerships with Mohammad Yousuf generated 3013 runs from 57 stands at an average of 56.84, including 10 century partnerships and another 13 above fifty. They are one of only three Pakistani batting pairs who have accumulated more than 3000 runs while in partnership at the wicket in Test matches.
He is one of Pakistan’s four triple centurions with his knock of 329 against New Zealand in 2002. This included 206 runs from fours and sixes alone, and he belongs to an exclusive list of only five batsmen in the entire history of Test cricket to aggregate more than 200 runs from just boundaries and sixes in an innings.
Inzamam is Pakistan’s highest Test scorer against England with 1584 runs at an average of 54.62 and inclusive of 5 centuries. He also has the highest Test aggregate of any Pakistani batsman against Zimbabwe with 772 runs.
He scored more nineties in his Test career than any other Pakistani batsman, having reached this milestone 8 times. Like Miandad before him, Inzamam scored a century in his hundredth Test, making 184 against India at Bengaluru in 2005. At the time this was also the highest score ever recorded by a batsman in one's centenary Test.
Inzamam was the world’s leading batsman on the ICC Test batting list in February 1995 and again in December 1997. He also holds the record for the most consecutive fifties against any country, scoring nine versus England between May 2001 and July 2006.
Mohammad Yousuf (1998-2010)
Yousuf began his career as Yousuf Youhanna before converting to Islam and adopting the name Mohammad Yousuf in 2005. While Inzamam exuded power and a casual indifference, Yousuf had a languid elegance about his strokeplay, caressing the ball with grace and effortless ease to all parts of the ground. Even his more aggressive shots like the lofted on-drive over mid-wicket or mid-on had a certain stately majesty about it. His swift run gathering was deceptively unhurried and he relished long innings and big scores.
His total international tally in all forms of the game was 17,300 runs at an average of 45.32, a strike rate of 63.23, with 39 hundreds and 97 fifties. He hit 1691 fours and 138 sixes. In Tests he is one of only four batsmen to average over fifty for Pakistan. He was the fastest Pakistani to reach both the 6000 and 7000 Test runs. His four double centuries are the third highest by any Pakistani batsman and he also has three dismissals in the 190s which is a world best.
In 2006, Yousuf scored 1788 Test runs, breaking Sir Vivian Richards 30-year-old record. His 9 centuries along the route are also the most ever in a given year. During that year he also equaled Don Bradman’s record of scoring 6 centuries in successive Tests. Yousuf’s tally of 665 runs against the West Indies in 2006-07 at an average of 133.00 is the third highest aggregate ever for a three-Test series. His 4 centuries during this rubber is the second highest number of hundreds ever scored in a Test series. During his golden year of 2006 Yousuf also hit fifties in 6 consecutive Test innings, the second Pakistani batsman to do so after Zaheer Abbas.
Yousuf also holds the record for the highest average by a Pakistani batsman at the number four position in Tests with 3416 runs at an average of 56.93. He also heads another list, being the highest Pakistani scorer against the West Indies with 1214 Test runs from just 8 matches, at an average of 101.16, including 7 centuries.
Apart from his highly productive partnership with Inzamam mentioned earlier, Yousuf also partnered with Younis Khan in 42 Test innings that yielded 3137 runs at an average of 78.42, with 9 century stands and 12 above fifty. The best was a 3rd wicket partnership of 363 runs against England at Leeds in 2006.
Yousuf gained first position on the ICC Test batting ranking list in July 2009. Earlier, in December 2006, he had reached an ICC Test batting rating of 933, the highest ever achieved by any Pakistani batsman.
In ODIs, Yousuf achieved the uncommon distinction of scoring a century in his hundredth ODI, when he made 129 against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in 2002. In a 24-day run in 2003, Yousuf scored 6 fifties in consecutive ODI innings, 4 against Bangladesh and 2 versus South Africa. For the last 5 years of his ODI career, from April 2005 till his last match November 2010, Yousuf enjoyed a succession of 92 ODIs without recording a single duck.
Younis Khan
(2000-2017)
Younis did not possess the panache and composure of Inzamam nor the flair and flamboyance of Yousuf, but what he did have in abundance was grit and determination. His style was business-like, designed to produce results rather than please the eye. The leg side flick, the exaggerated cover drive almost on one knee, sweep shots galore and powerful pulls and heaves into the deep repeatedly brought him success on venues both at home and abroad.
In all international matches, Younis made 17,790 runs at an average of 39.88, a strike rate of 60.57, 41 centuries and 83 fifties. He hit 1691 boundaries and 138 sixes. It was, however, in the Test format that Younis was in his true element. He is Pakistan’s highest run scorer in Tests with 10,089 runs at an average of 52.05. His 34 Test centuries are also the highest by any Pakistani batsman, and include 6 double hundreds which is a Pakistan record that he shares with Javed Miandad. He is also one of Pakistan’s four triple centurions.
He was the fastest Pakistani batsman to reach the milestones of 4000, 9000 and 10,000 Test runs. He has the best average for a Pakistani batsman playing at the number three position, with 4055 Test runs at an average of 51.32. He is Pakistan’s highest Test scorer against South Africa with 990 runs inclusive of 4 centuries and versus Sri Lanka with 2286 runs including 8 centuries.
Younis was always a team man. Out of his total of 118 Tests, Pakistan won 46. Younis’ tally in these wins was 4910 runs at an average of 74.39, bettered only by Bradman, Inzamam and Sobers. This tally also includes 19 hundreds and his ratio of hundreds per Test wins is 46/19 or 2.42, which is the 3rd highest ever.
Younis’ 1465 runs is the highest aggregate by any Pakistani batsman in the 4th innings of a Test and his five hundreds in the fourth innings is a world best. With 2434 runs in the third innings, and 3282 runs in the second innings of a Test match, he is also the leading Pakistani in these categories.
Younis and Misbah hold the national record for the highest runs scored in tandem in Test matches. In 53 partnerships they totaled 3213 runs at an average of 68.36, with 15 century stands. The Younis-Yousuf combo’s yield of 3137 Test runs from 42 stands has already been mentioned above.
Younis is the only Pakistani, and one of just 13 batsmen, to have scored centuries against 9-Test playing nations. He is also the only player to have scored a Test century in eleven countries, including the UAE, that have hosted Test matches. Alongside Herbert Sutcliffe, Younis is the only batsman in Test history to score three consecutive centuries against Australia. Finally, Younis also occupied the number one spot in the ICC Test batting rankings list in February 2009.
Misbah ul Haq
(2001-2017)
Misbah first played for Pakistan in 2001, but was dropped for four years between 2003 and 2007, before he made it back to the national side as Inzamam’s replacement. Misbah was a two dimensional batsman, alternating between prolonged periods of solid defense that earned him the epithet ‘tuk-tuk’, or violent bursts of savage attack when going for the kill.
Almost 27 years old when first selected for Pakistan, he was 33 when he returned to the team in 2007 as a regular. He was into his forties when he retired, and will be remembered as the sober, elder statesmen of Pakistan cricket, who lifted Pakistan from the aftermath of the ball-fixing scandal to the top of the ICC ranking list as the best Test team of the world.
Misbah scored a total of 11,132 runs in all forms of international cricket, at an average of 44.35, a strike rate of 57.42 runs, 10 centuries and 94 fifties. He hit 898 fours and 190 sixes. Interestingly, 81 of these sixes came in Test matches which is the highest for a Pakistani batsman.
Misbah also has the highest tally in Tests for a Pakistani batsman playing at the number five position, scoring 4643 runs at an average of 50.47. He has the fifth best average by a Pakistani batsman in Test matches, with 5222 runs at 46.62 per innings. His 4212 runs, including 8 centuries, in 56 Tests as captain, is the highest run aggregate by a Pakistani while leading the side. His 3213 runs in Test partnerships with Younis have already been mentioned.
As a dedicated team man, Misbah always rose to the occasion when Pakistan needed him and many of his best performances coincided with Pakistani victories. Pakistan won 29 of the 75 Tests that Misbah played in and in these matches he scored 2335 runs at an average of 63.10.
When he made a Test century against England at Lords in 2016 at the age of 42 years and 47 days, he became the oldest player to do so since Geoffrey Boycott in 1981. In 2014, Misbah scored a Test hundred from only 56 balls against Australia in the UAE, to equal Viv Richards' record for the fastest hundred in terms of balls faced. During the same innings he also scored a fifty in only 21 balls, which is still an unsurpassed best. Tuk-Tuk could certainly put his foot on the accelerator when needed.
In the winter of 2010-11, Misbah became the third Pakistani batsman, after Zaheer Abbas and Mohammad Yousuf, to score fifties in 6 consecutive Test innings.
In ODIs, Misbah with a run aggregate of 5122, is the only batsman to score over 5000 runs without a single century. His highest ODI score was 96 not out against the West Indies in the ICC Champions Trophy of 2013.
The void that these four have left has been hard to fill. The memories that they have left behind continue as reminders of a golden period of our cricket history. A quartet of undeniable quality.
Dr Salman Faridi is a senior surgeon, poet, sports aficionado and an avid reader with a private collection of over 7000 books.salmanfaridilnhhotmail.com