Mohammad Yousuf      

This much is at least certain that few Pakistani batsmen have been as elegant as Mohammad Yousuf and fewer still have been as prolific, as hungry to bat as long and bat as big.

At his best, watching Yousuf bat is an unnervingly tranquil experience, especially amid the traditional chaos of a Pakistan batting order. He has a dangerously high backlift, which makes every shot he plays, a late, unhurried afterthought, but a beautiful one. The feet take time to get going, but once they do, they dance with the best. Square and behind it on the off side are his areas, where his game is the most enchanting.

Both his life and career can be demarcated into two distinct phases. Until 2005, as Yousuf Youhana, he was only the fourth Christian to have played for Pakistan, and easily the most successful. He converted publicly to Islam late that year, after which he became a great Pakistani batsman and briefly part of as formidable a middle order as the country has seen, with Younis Khan and Inzamam-ul-Haq on either side. At least he believes there to be a link, and statistics would back that up.

Immediately after, in 2006, came his most profitable year, in fact the most profitable for any batsman ever in a calendar year. Over 11 Tests, he scored 1788 runs with nine hundreds, breaking Sir Viv Richards' 30-year-old record. If there had been a nagging doubt that he often withered when the heat was on - and the story of his rise from extremely humble backgrounds as a member of a minority religion should've wiped those away anyway - it was erased here.

Age, run-ins with the board since, and ill-advised flirtations with the ICL and captaincy dimmed his aura but the worst came in March 2010, when the PCB imposed a life-ban on him, along with Younis Khan as a part of its unprecedentedly harsh sanctions on senior players from the ill-fated tour of Australia. Yousuf's was overturned in 2010.
Osman Samiuddin

• February 26, 1998
  Inauspicious debut
  • Makes his Test debut against South Africa in Durban, scoring 5 and 1 as Pakistan win by 29 runs. He is the fourth Christian to represent Pakistan.
    
• March 28, 1998
  One-day debut is better
  • Makes his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in Harare, scoring an unbeaten 59 to help Pakistan chase 237 with four wickets left.
    
• November 10, 1998
  Maiden ton in vain
  • Hits his maiden ODI hundred, 100 from 111 balls in his 10th ODI, against Australia, but the tourists chase down 316 with six wickets in hand, successfully equaling the then-highest run-chase in one-day international history.
    
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• December 13, 1998
  Conversion at last
  • After having scored four half-centuries in his first six Tests, converts the fifth into a maiden hundred against Zimbabwe in Lahore.
    
• June 1999
  Sad end to World Cup
  • Misses the final of the World Cup against Australia at Lord's because of a hamstring injury. Is in good form prior to that, with 161 runs from four games at 53.66.
    
• November 5-9, 1999
  Australia thump Pakistan, but love Youhana
  • Classy twin half-centuries cannot prevent defeat at Brisbane,
    but he earns rave reviews for his application and strokeplay. Scores 95 in the first innings, adding 151 with Inzamam-ul-Haq in 51 overs, and 75 in the second.
    
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• May, 2000
  As good as a calypso
  • Enhances his reputation as a class act with two hundreds in the West Indies, but Pakistan lose the series.
    
• March 18, 2001
  One to open the floodgates
  • Hits 203, his first double hundred, out of a total of 571 in a high-scoring draw
    in Christchurch. Adds 248 for the seventh wicket with Saqlain Mushtaq.
    
• August, 2002
  So long
  • Is sent back home from a tri-nations tournament in Kenya on charges of insubordination. Is accused of not following captain Waqar Younis's instructions to appear at the nets.
    
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• January, 2003
  Fast, but late
  • Hits a 27-ball fifty, the second fastest in Test history, in a losing cause against South Africa in Cape Town. Hits Nicky Boje for four fours, a two and a six off the first over he receives from the spinner. The first ball of the next over also goes six, perhaps the shots of a man resigned to defeat.
    
• October 2003
  In the dock
  • Is fined 50% of his match fee for an incident involving Graeme Smith and Andrew Hall during the second one-day international in Lahore. Is found guilty of a Level 1 offence while Smith and Hall are banned for one ODI.
    
• December 26, 2004
  Boxing Day punches
  • Scores a century
    in Melbourne on Boxing Day when standing in as captain - an attacking 111 from 134 balls on the first day.
    
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• June, 2005
  Father over cricket
  • Returns home ahead of the first Test in Barbados after his father is diagnosed with a kidney ailment, and despite the team-management's requesting that he return for the second Test, he tells the board that he is in no state of mind to make the journey. Later that week, announces he will undergo surgery on a chronic shoulder problem that has troubled him for a couple of years.
    
• September, 2005
  What's in a name?
  • Converts to Islam, and changes his name to Mohammad Yousuf. Reveals he has taken the step after attending preaching sessions from a leading religious group. Rumours swirl that he had been pressurised into the change by a team with increasingly devout Islamic beliefs.
    
• December 2, 2005
  Dealing in doubles
  • His third double-hundred
    sets up a series-deciding victory over England at Lahore. Pakistan are in trouble at 68 for 3, but he forges partnerships and when he departs at 516 for 6, he has 223 runs to his name.
    
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• April, 2006
  County chaos
  • Announces he will not play for Derbyshire, as earlier stated, due to a registration problem. Is originally selected as a temporary replacement for Jacques Rudolph, but cannot fulfill the ECB stipulation that counties may only use temporary substitutes for players who are away on international duty, not those who are injured.
    
• July-September, 2006
  Enchanting England
  • Is the leading run-getter by a long way in the Pakistan-England series, scoring 631 runs at an average of 90.31. It includes three centuries, one of them a double at Lord's, and one a score of 192 at Headingley. England still win the series 3-0.
    
• November, 2006
  Outdoing Sir Viv
  • Scores 192 in Lahore, 191 in Multan, and 102 and 124 in Karachi to break Sir Viv Richards's 30-year-old record for most Test runs in a calendar year. Scores 1,788 Test runs in 11 Tests and averages, between November 2005 and November 2006, 92.00 in 14 Tests.
    
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• January, 2007
  Misses the first Test against South Africa at Centurion as his wife is due to give birth.
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• March 2007
  Wisden warm up to Yousuf
  • Yousuf is named one of Wisden's five Cricketers of the Year for 2006, his year. Is later named the Test player of the year by the ICC.
    
• August, 2007
  Unwanted in Pakistan
  • Is omitted from Pakistan's squad for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20. Is soon named on the roster of star signers with the breakaway Indian Cricket League (ICL) in India, prompting plenty of speculation back home.
    
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• September, 2007
  U-turn
  • Is back in the Pakistan fold, and gets a central contract after he cancels his commitment with the ICL.
    
• October, 2007
  Truth is stranger
  • Days after being drafted back into the national side, pulls out of the first Test against South Africa, which Pakistan lose. "I haven't practised for the last two months, and I told the selectors I will not be playing the first Test yesterday. I have no injury, but I felt I was not match fit," says later.
    
• Scores a century in the second ODI to help Pakistan draw level.
  
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• February, 2008
  Not in any league
  • Is blocked from playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) because of the contractual limbo with the ICL.
    
• March 2010
  Banned from the team
  • Is removed from Pakistan's teams for all three formats, in the aftermath of the ill-fated Australia tour, where he led the team through a winless and controversial run.
    
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• 115 v West Indies, Barbados, 2000
  
  • West Indies have skittled half the Pakistan side for less than 40 runs, after they chose to bat, but Youhana leads the rescue act with a classy 115 in six hours, with 14 fours. His dismissal shortly before stumps brings the innings to an end and gives the persevering Walsh his 18th five-wicket innings return in Tests. He rates this, his third Test century, as best over his debut hundred and his 95 against Australia in Brisbane.
    
• 100* v India, Dhaka, 2000
  
  • Pakistan make a flying start, but India hit back to leave them 103 for 4. Youhana leads the recovery with a canny 100, and displays the kind of maturity that would have made Javed Miandad proud. He paces his innings with precision, and never looks ruffled. His first fifty occupies 90 balls, his second just 23, with the last ball of the innings, from T Kumaran, sent over long-on for six. India lose and are eliminated from the Asia Cup.
    
• 124 v England, Lahore, 2000-01
  
  • Pakistan are 273 for 8 in response to England's 480, and are the only team that can lose the match from there. Youhana, though, gets company in Saqlain Mushtaq, and takes complete charge. Youhana resumes the fifth morning on 77 in Pakistan's 333 for 8, and departs after scoring a top-class 124 as the hosts hold on for a draw. Saqlain scores 32 out of a 121-run ninth-wicket stand.
    
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• 129 v Sri Lanka, Sharjah, 2001-02
  
  • With Pakistan at 33 for 2 in the final, Youhana comes up with a career-best 129 to set up Pakistan's win. Twenty thousand hollering fans witness him and Younis Khan silence Sri Lanka to the death of a thousand cuts with a stand of 155 in as many balls. The shots are almost to perfection, the running between the wickets excellent, and he could just as well rate this innings, in the classical mould that it was, along with the best of his Test hundreds.
    
• 81* v India, Birmingham, 2004
  
  • In front of a packed house, with a ticket to the next round of the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy at stake, an innings of determination clinches a thriller against archrivals India. Pakistan need 201 and India chip away to leave them 27 for 3, but they have no way to get past Youhana. He adds 75 with Inzamam, and remains composed and canny, hardly putting a foot wrong, to get Pakistan home with four balls to spare.
    
• 111 v Australia, Melbourne, 2004-05
  
  • With Inzamam-ul-Haq out with a back injury, Youhana becomes Pakistan's first Christian captain, and hits 11 fours and four sixes in a brilliant first-day 111 off 134 balls in the Boxing Day Test. He shares a national record fourth-wicket stand against Australia of 192 in 46 overs with Younis Khan. There is nothing weak about the Australian attack - McGrath, Gillespie, Warne, Kasprowiscz, but he bats excellently, hitting Warne for three of his four sixes. His dismissal sparks off a collapse, and Pakistan go on to lose the match.
    
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• 223 v England, Lahore, 2005-06
  
  • Pakistan are in a spot of bother at 68 for 3 in response to England's 288, but Yousuf digs in for his third double-hundred that ultimately sets up the series-deciding win. He adds 269 with Kamran Akmal, a Pakistan sixth-wicket record, and bats 10 hours and two minutes, and 373 balls for his 223, which includes 26 fours and two sixes. This double comes just after his conversion to Islam; he becomes the first man to score Test double-centuries under different names.
    
• 202 v England, Lord's, 2006
  
  • During the first Test of what becomes an excellent personal summer, he arrives at Lord's - after England make 528 - with Pakistan 28 for 2, then 68 for 4, and parks himself there. He bats seven hours and 48 minutes for an impeccable double-hundred that features 26 fours and a six in 330 balls. In the second innings, he scores 48 from 62 balls as Pakistan secure a draw.
    
• 192 v England, Leeds, 2006
  • Pakistan are 36 in 2 in reply to England's 515 when Yousuf and Younis put on a record-breaking stand of 363, which forms the centerpiece of Pakistan's 538. The duo eclipse their 319-run stand against India earlier in the year, and indicate that they aren't going to be cowed into a corner. Yousuf's off-side play kisses perfection, and he again shows that he doesn't stop on crossing a hundred, stymieing England's chance of forcing a match-winning position in the first innings. In the second, though, he fails, and a collapse follows; Pakistan lose the match by 167 runs.
    
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• 102 and 124 v West Indies, Karachi, 2006-07
  • Yousuf ends 2006, a year that he owns, by hitting twin hundreds to break Sir Viv Richards's 30-year-old mark of 1,710 runs in a calendar year, with 1,788. His eight and ninth hundreds beat the previous best of seven. Yousuf's 102, his fifth century in as many Tests, holds together the first innings, in which no-one else passes 50. Then his second-innings 124 make Pakistan's position impregnable, as they win by 199 runs to secure the series.
    
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