Former Pakistan cricket captain Mohammad Yousuf has announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket in protest against an indefinite ban imposed by PCB on him, a few days back.
Yousuf, formerly known as Yousuf Youhanna, used to celebrate his landmark innings with cross sign converted to Islam after three years of his cricket career. In an interview it was said he had converted in 2001 and told his team-mates on the 2004-05 tour to Australia.
Yousuf was among seven Pakistan players penalised, for various reasons, by the PCB. He and Younis Khan were handed indefinite bans, Shoaib Malik and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan were banned for a year while Shahid Afridi and the Akmal brothers were fined and placed on probation for six months.
The 35 years old middle order backbone of Pakistan cricket remained on the scene for 12 years. By many analysts, he considered to be one of the most underrated cricketers. He started his career in 1998 when he debuted against South Africa in a Test match. His first ODI appearance came a few days later against Zimbabwe, in which he remained unbeaten on 59. With a Test tally of 7431 runs; averaging 53.07 in 88 matches, he at number three in the all-time list of most run getters for Pakistan, next only to Javed Miandad and Inzamam-ul-Haq. In ODIs he is in second place with 9458 runs; averaging 42.39 in 282 matches, behind Inzamam.
Yousuf produces many match winning and memorable innings in his career, in both, Tests and ODIs. He was one of the very best middle order batsmen of all time. He also made the world record of most runs in calendar year in year 2006. Yousuf piled up 1788 runs during that year. He was selected as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in the 2007 edition. Yousuf became the fourth recipient of the ICC ‘Test Cricketer of the Year’ award for 2007; he scored 944 runs at an average of 94.40 including seven centuries and two fifties in just 10 innings. Yousuf had scored 39 international centuries and 96 international half centuries.
| Matches | Inn’s. | Runs | Average | 100s | 50s | Strike Rate | Highest Score | |
| Tests | 88 | 152 | 7431 | 53.07 | 24 | 32 | 52.38 | 2010 |
| ODIs | 282 | 267 | 9624 | 42.39 | 15 | 64 | 75.15 | 141* |
| Best middle-order batsmen in Tests
(Qualification: 4000 runs at Nos. 4 and 5) |
|||||
| Batsman | Matches | Runs | Average | 100s | 50s |
| Greg Chappell | 61 | 4926 | 60.07 | 16 | 24 |
| Jacques Kallis | 87 | 7352 | 59.77 | 25 | 35 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 152 | 12,570 | 57.13 | 45 | 50 |
| Mohammad Yousuf | 86 | 7091 | 55.83 | 24 | 31 |
| Steve Waugh | 110 | 6950 | 55.15 | 24 | 30 |
| Best Test batsman between 2001 and 2006
(Qualification: 3000 runs) |
|||||
| Batsman | Matches | Runs | Average | 100s | 50s |
| Mohammad Yousuf | 46 | 4666 | 66.65 | 18 | 15 |
| Ricky Ponting | 71 | 6913 | 65.83 | 26 | 25 |
| Jacques Kallis | 60 | 5443 | 64.03 | 17 | 27 |
| Rahul Dravid | 66 | 5776 | 60.16 | 15 | 29 |
| Brian Lara | 57 | 5883 | 58.24 | 19 | 18 |
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