Prolific Younis wants to be remembered as "team man"

Younis, 36, cracked a magnificent 213 to guide Pakistan to an imperious 570-6 declared in their first innings, leaving them in a strong position for their first series win over Australia in 20 years after winning the first Test by 221 runs in Dubai.

At close on the second day Australia were 22-1, trailing by 548 runs.

Younis completed his 8,000 Test runs during the knock, third behind his illustrious countryman Javed Miandad (8832) and Inzamam-ul Haq (8829).

In all 28 batsmen have scored 8,000 or more runs in Tests with India’s Sachin Tendulkar (15,921) on top.

Younis is now Pakistan’s highest Test centurion with 27.

During his 181-run fourth wicket stand with Misbah-ul Haq (101) he became the highest century partnership maker with his skipper on 11, beating the pairs of Miandad and Mudassar Nazar and Inzamam and Mohammad Yousuf who had ten stands of over 100.

Younis said he still wasn’t among the greats of Pakistan cricket.

“I am not great .. like Javed, Inzamam, Yousuf or Hanif Mohammad. I can’t compare myself with them,” Younis said after the day’s play.

“The era I am playing in is easy for me compared to theirs. I want to be remembered as a team-man who loves to serve and his performance makes his country proud and win.”

Younis wants his team inflict a whitewash on Australia.

“Obviously when you score runs and contribute a lot in the game you want the team to win comprehensively so I have a desire that we manage to pull a whitewash. But it isn’t easy for us, we still have to put the hard work in as despite the fact we have good spinners Australia have been in such situations more than once and it’s a familiar case for them. ”

Younis admitted it was tough to overcome the disappointment of being axed from the preceding one-day series, which Pakistan lost 3-0.

“I can’t explain how I spent that particular week as my family and friends were all tense and they were all wondering what I am going to do,” said Younis.

“They were afraid I might retire or something. But that one week was the major cause of motivation for me.” -AFP