Payback time for Younis

Rahul Dravid recently said, in an interview to The Wisden Cricketer, "most of the time you are neither as good nor as bad as people write and say you are." When he sits down for his end-of-day cup of tea, Younis Khan should think long and hard about that statement, and draw strength from his seventh Test century, without forgetting what happened only a few days ago in the first Test.

At the end of the Mohali Test, where Younis embarrassed himself twice with the bat, and several more times in the field, it seemed a strange decision to appoint him vice-captain ahead of the steady Yousuf Youhana, even with the long-term in mind. Younis appeared to lack the technique to handle the swinging ball, and the temperament to tough it out when things were not going his way.

Yet, at Eden Gardens, after India's tail had wagged enough to push the score to 407, something that looked unlikely when Dravid was dismissed late on the first day, Younis played the kind of innings which reminds you that Imran Khan knows a thing or two about spotting talent. Imran had tipped Younis for the captaincy, and perhaps it was the four hours that he spent on the field as captain on the first day when Inzamam-ul-Haq was indisposed, that helped Younis get his groove back. Where Inzamam was reserved, Younis was exuberant. Where Inzamam was lurking in the slips, hands in pockets, waiting for the tide to turn, Younis was running from fielder to bowler, putting in place aggressive fields and setting things up.

Irfan Pathan was off the boil, and Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh got nothing from the wicket, but that takes nothing away from the way Younis batted. He came out to bat after an opening partnership that was part ragged part manic, and Pakistan needed stability more than anything else. And he provided that, not in the classical sense that Dravid did on the first day, but by playing his natural game freely, and with the confidence that he knew his method worked.

One thing you cannot help notice is the importance Younis places on singles. He hares up and down the pitch, pumping those strong legs, and covers his first few yards so quickly that it demoralises the fielder. And, he did this all day long, aggressively and unwaveringly. That's not to say it was an innings of tip-and-run. When he drove through the offside, it was as vigorously as anyone had in this match, but it was the way he cut and pulled that rendered the spinners ineffective.

Even with two fielders protecting the area, he was willing to rock back and cut the spinners so late that he could place the ball safely out of harm's way. This forced the spinners to bowl a straighter line, and gave him access to the less-protected on side whenever they erred in length.

With Youhana at the other end, runs came quickly - comfortably more than four an over - and the partnership burgeoned. When Younis reached his century, off only 144 balls, he had added 175 runs with Youhana. And when the day ended, their unbeaten 203-run partnership had taken Pakistan to 273 , and Pakistan, from being a team in disarray, were in with a realistic chance, with Inzamam still to bat, of securing a lead big enough to harbour thoughts of winning this match. Engineering turnarounds of this sort is the stuff of leadership, and it is leadership, not the mantle of captaincy, that inspires the loyalty of team-mates and the respect of opponents.

And to think Younis, despite being vice-captain, was under such fire before this Test that Inzamam had to come out in open support of him, saying firmly, "Younis Khan will play." "There's no pressure in being vice-captain," Younis would say at the end of the day. "It's not like being captain. But I am very happy with the way the boys backed me before this game, and also the management, and Inzamam came out and supported me so strongly the day before the match. I didn't want to let any of them down."