An underachiever in ODIs
Younis Khan has been an outstanding Test batsman, but his ODI average of 31.24 is the third-lowest among the 49 batsmen who have scored at least 6000 runs
S Rajesh
11-Nov-2015
Younis Khan's best ODI years were between 2006 and 2008, when he averaged 42.79 and scored five of his seven hundreds in this format • Getty Images
265 ODI matches for Younis Khan; only five Pakistan players - Shahid Afridi, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram, Saleem Malik and Mohammad Yousuf - have played more ODIs for Pakistan. In terms of ODI runs scored for Pakistan too, Younis is in sixth place, after Inzamam, Yousuf, Saeed Anwar, Afridi, and Javed Miandad.
55 Fifty-plus scores for Younis in ODIs, fifth among all Pakistan batsmen, after Inzamam, Yousuf, Anwar and Miandad.
42.79 Younis' ODI batting average between 2006 and 2008, his best years in this format. In 54 innings during this period, Younis scored five hundreds; in his remaining 201 innings, he scored just two centuries. In that three-year phase, Yousuf was the only Pakistan batsman to score more ODI runs than Younis. Since the beginning of 2009, his average dropped to 24.94 in 83 innings, with just one century.
12 Fifty-plus scores in ODIs for Younis in 2002; only twice have Pakistan's batsmen made more 50-plus scores in a calendar year - Misbah-ul-Haq had 15 in 2013, while Anwar went past fifty 13 times in 1996. Miandad and Yousuf had 12 fifty-plus scores too, in 1987 and 2003.
15 Man-of-the-Match awards for Younis in ODIs, joint tenth among all Pakistan players. Eight of his 15 awards came in the three-year period between 2006 and 2008.
130 Catches taken by Younis as a fielder in ODIs, the highest for Pakistan and seventh-best among all teams. Twice he has taken four catches in an innings, which is also the joint-highest for Pakistan.
31.24 Younis Khan's ODI batting average. Among the 49 batsmen who have scored at least 6000 ODI runs, only two have a poorer average - Afridi (23.57) and Allan Border (30.62). Younis' Test average of 53.94 is eighth among the 61 batsmen who have scored 6000-plus runs in Tests.
21.81 Younis' World Cup batting average. He played in four editions - 2003 to 2015 - but managed only 349 runs in 18 innings, with two 50-plus scores and a highest of 72, against Sri Lanka in 2011. Among the Pakistan batsmen who batted in the top six at least 15 times in World Cup games, his average is the lowest. Inzamam did only marginally better, averaging 23.90 in 33 World Cup innings.
S Rajesh is stats editor of ESPNcricinfo. @rajeshstats