Pakistan’s superstar batsman Younis Khan is considering retirement from One Day Internationals (ODI) after series against England.
Younis was selected for the ODI squad last week for the first time since the 2015 World Cup. His meager returns there, on the back of an indifferent period in any case, were thought to have ended a 264-match career.
Given his standing and Test form, selectors have found it impossible to ignore him. In any case, it may not be a long-term development.
“I can leave at anytime,” Younis told a newspaper. “I am trying to – whenever I feel is right – leave on my own terms and conditions. At the age I am at, I have to decide very quickly what I want to do.
“If you look at my career, a player like myself, he should leave the game with honour. Like I left Twenty20 (after winning the 2009 World Twenty20) that was really appreciated. When you are at the top and you retire, you leave a legacy behind.”
Since then, he has played in 43 of Pakistan’s 109 ODIs, with none too impressive figures: he averages 27 and has just the single hundred (that is his only ODI hundred since 2008).
He had thought about retiring then, but he wanted to have a couple of good series before he left. After being recalled to the ODI squad against New Zealand last year he again thought about leaving at the end of that series.
He insists that there is still room in the modern ODI for a batsman like him, “around whom an innings can be built”. But he is not long for the format, conceding that there is no chance he plays until the 2019 World Cup.
Instead, a prolific series or two and he may be gone.
