Meet Younis Khan who emerged from the verge of extinction to fame

New Delhi: Just when the pundits had begun bemoaning his lack of killer instinct, Younis has silenced them with a majestic walk into the Hall of Fame when he hit three consecutive centuries in as many innings against mighty Australia.Pakistan batsman Younis Khan has now changed the topic of the debate from “should he or should he be not in world cup squad to “is he or is he not one of the great batsmen that Pakistan has produced.”One of Pakistan's modern batting greats, Younus Khan is the kind of man who responds best in adversity. A Test average of over 50, a triple-hundred, a famous double-hundred against India in India and now three consecutive centuries against Australia leave no doubt about his quality and class.He is the only Pakistani batsman to score three consecutive hundreds against the Aussies, and also the third highest test scorer for Pakistan. Never to forget he also holds the record of most centuries by any Pakistan batsman.However because of his poor form in ODIs it is still being debated if he should be included for World Cup squad next year or not.Younis was one of the few batsmen who retained his place in the team after Pakistan's disastrous World Cup campaign in 2003, but lost it soon due to a string of poor scores in the home series against Bangladesh and South Africa.It was his return to the side in October 2004 against Sri Lanka in Karachi that laid the groundwork for his emergence as a force in Pakistan cricket. Younus was the top run-getter in the disastrous 3–0 whitewash in Australia.Before Australia tour Pakistan toured India in 2005. He failed miserably initially but bounced back strongly; capping things off with 267 in the final test. It was his highest Test score that came off 504 balls in the first innings, to set up a series levelling victory in Bangalore.In 2005, he was one of the 15 nominees for the ICC Test Player of the Year. He is the second fastest Pakistani in terms of innings to reach 4000 Test runs, behind Javed Miandad. Younus reached the milestone in 87 innings, just one more than Sachin Tendulkar took.Younus Khan topped the ICC's Test Batting Rankings in February 2009 after an acclaimed innings of 313 in his first test as captain, in the process of helping save the match for Pakistan.His ranking score of 880 is the third highest achieved by a Pakistani batsmen after Mohammad Yousuf (933), Javed Miandad (885) and just ahead of Inzamam-ul-Haq (870).In what was to later be his final act in Twenty20 internationals, he leads Pakistan to the 2009 World Twenty20 crown. Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the final at Lord's, and he uses cricket's grandest stage to announce his retirement from Twenty20s.Younus is a key member in the ODI and Test match side. On October 22 2014, Younus reached his 25th test century (106) against Australia and made his 26th century (103*) in the 2nd innings of the same test match, the highest number of centuries of a Pakistani batsman and the only sixth Pakistani batsman to hit centuries in both innings of same test match.The second test began on Thursday, 30th October was nothing different from the first. He scored yet another century on Day 1 and settled Pakistan for a solid total till stumps. He built a partnership of 208 runs with Azhar Ali (101*), the only double century partnership by Pakistani batsmen for any wicket against Australia since 1998.It was after 90 years since December 1924 when Herbert Sutcliffe of England scored three back to back centuries against Australia, Younus became the second and the only Pakistani batsmen to achieve the feat.He became the fourth Pakistani batsmen to score three consecutive centuries in test cricket succeeded by Zaheer Abbas, Mudassar Nazar and Mohammad Yousuf. He is now the third highest run scorer for Pakistan in test cricket with 7930 runs in 93 matches averaging 53.22.Due to his poor run form in ODIs, he is being criticized and many are not in favor of picking him up in the squad for the world cup next year in Australia/New Zealand. He was dropped from the Pakistan ODI squad against Australia earlier this month which made him quite aggressive towards his game. He thought of quitting test cricket after he was snubbed from the ODIs.But now, he for sure must be thinking of not taking that step and Pakistan national selectors might have to think twice before excluding him for the world cup.