A Younis-ian joie de vivre

Younis Khan reserves for India a special attention. Two centuries, both large in scale, as part of 508 runs in three Tests last year initiated the affair and he consummated it today with his third century against them in four Tests. Like Javed Miandad and Zaheer Abbas before him, his fondness for Indian bowlers is considerable. Having regressed briefly into a habit of wasting good starts against England and temporarily shaken by the death of his brother, his return here was particularly heartening.

As a composition, similar ingredients went in today as have been found in his earlier successes against India. Off the mark with a prod to point, a quick single and a bat-clap to acknowledge his partner's part in the whole exercise, the blueprint of Kolkata and Bangalore was put in place from his very first ball. Like then, he came in at the loss of an early wicket - in the day's third over - and immediately tried to impose a calm urgency; defend yes, but also attack slyly.

By the 12th over he had made only eight, but had run enough with Shoaib Malik to push the scoring rate to nearly three. Then, off the first ball of that over, he uncurled a square cut and began composing. Like many of the18 boundaries that followed and the many movements he makes generally when playing a shot, what caught the eye was the culmination immediately after the stroke has been played. Following the cut was an extravagant circular twirl of the bat, as if he was waving a wand. His drives were often concluded by a whippy straight flick of the bat, a front foot pull came with a theatrical pivot, even pulling out of the way of a bouncer needed a nifty dance step or two.

But let's not inadvertently discredit his strokeplay for it has the capacity too to be wondrous. No cover-drive on bended knee was visible today but he more than compensated with two straight drives, both off Pathan. The first brought up his century, ignoring Dravid's presence at the silly driving position almost on the bowler's follow-through and the other, off both back feet, signalled dusk and the day's closure. Within them both lay something magical.

His running too followed previous patterns and as in Kolkata, with Mohammad Yousuf he ran India ragged. He is a good judge of a single and as he admitted, "I enjoy batting with Shoaib Malik and Yousuf because they rotate the strike well and run hard between the wickets." But his fitness is even better. In a practice match before the England series, in sweltering Karachi during Ramadan, Younis batted, fielded and led with the very cheerleading nervous energy that makes him. The only thing was though that he was fasting, a display that prompted Bob Woolmer to futilely question where he gets so much energy from. He ran singles galore, had a rare all-run four with Yousuf and in the last over of the day ran three as if running his first runs of the day. Only he looked faster.

His record against India, as well as against Sri Lanka and Muralitharan, suggests he handles spinners particularly adeptly, but broadly his record is built on sturdy foundations. As a purely statistical crutch, we can compare him to Virender Sehwag; with ten 100s and ten 50s in 39 Tests, Sehwag rightly elicits gasps of awe. But Younis's hundred today was his tenth in 40 Tests and his conversion - he has eleven 50s - bears a striking resemblance too. The comparison is only useful because it opens your eyes to what Younis has been doing since he returned to the side with a hundred in October 2004 against Sri Lanka: 11 Tests, four 100s and over 1200 runs at 57.42. Not just through his batting but his ascension to the vice-captaincy, it is a moment that conceivably promises to be as seminal as any in Pakistan's recent progress. With Inzamam approaching the endgame of his career, albeit in some style, Younis couldn't have timed his graduation any better.