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Since April 2009 Younis Khan has led Pakistan in 13 Odis out of which Pakistan has only won 5,  Pakistan lost a series against Australia, an Odi and Test series against Srilanka  and lost the semi finals of Champions trophy against an injury hit NewZealand team. However Pakistan did won the T20 World cup under him during this period.

Younis Khan was given the captaincy of Pakistan cricket team after a systematic campaign was launched  by a lobby of journalists hailing from Karachi against Malik, they accused  Malik of only winning against minnow teams, and pointed out that his personal performance was not good enough to guarantee him a place in the team, he was also accused of conspiring against senior players and forming cliques in the team.

Malik captained Pakistan team in 36 Odi’s and scored  with an average of 43.75 and also took 22 wickets, Pakistan team won 24 matches under him, where as Younis Khan has captained Pakistan in 18 matches altogether and has scored @ average of only 24.

What has surprised me the most is the pattern of Pakistan team’s performance under YK, he lost the series against Australia and SriLanka from winning positions. Surprisingly, Pakistan won the dead rubber matches in both the series, The pattern of defeats and victories in both series was strikingly similar.

In Champions trophy Pakistan was considered as a 7-2 favorite against the Kiwis but due to some bizzarre planning and decsion making, Pakistan lost against the Newzealand in the semi final, earlier Pakistan performed well in all the practice matches and only lost their group match Australia just by a whisker.

Many believe that Pakistan threw away their match against Australia to oust India from Semi finals and to face a weaker opposition in the semis.

It is the third time that Younis Khan has been accused for his involvement in match fixing, he was investigated by the ICC”s ACU team in India, his team was accused of throwing matches against SriLanka and now again the Chairman of the standing committee of sports in the parliment has personally accused him and the team management for fixing the match against Australia and the Semi finals of the Champion’s trophy.

I don’t know if any of these accusations are true and the accusers have any evidence to support their claims, but the way Pakistan team was led by Younis Khan certainly deserves an investigation..

My only concern is Younis Khan’s personal performance, Younis only averaged 16.77 in the current Champions trophy , he has played  16 matches in ICC world cups and Champions trophies so far and has scored only 225 runs @ 16.07 with a highest score of 35.

Didn’t he promised to lead from the front, didn’t he said that he wants to lead Pakistan team like Imran Khan did ? I wonder what people like Osman Sami and kamran  Abbassi who launched the campaign for Younis have to say now. Osman Sami still believes that team has showed a lot of improvement under him, and Kamran Abbassi rested all the blame on Yousaf. Not a word has been said about Younis Khans contionous poor form and inability to share the work load with Mohammad yousaf.

Younis Khan thinks that by playing with an injured pinky finger in itself is such an act of bravery that it should be regarded as “leading from the front” and he should be hold in the same esteem as when Imran Khan bowled with a stress fracture in his leg against India or Salim Malik batted with one hand against the likes of Marshall, Walsh and Ambrose.The only difference is that those guys performed even with the injury and Younis used his Pimky finger to hide his poor form, to me he looks like a pitiful clown  who thinks he is a god sent saviour of Pakistan cricket, he has done nothing in his career so far which can make him compare himself with Imran Khan, he is an imposter.

I strongly opposed the decision to make him captain and termed it as ” Rewarding Under performance.”

What disgusts me the most about Younis is, when he comes on national Tv and tells self made stories how people on streets begged him to take over the captaincy, and also when he threatens to quit after being crticised by the public.

The fact is that Younis made factions in the team under Malik and underperformed in key matches whether it was the T20 world cup final or the South African Odi series or the Odi series against India he always underperformed in key matches. It is also a fact that Younis was publicly ridiculed in his own home town after 2007 World cup after which he was reluctant to take over a struggling Pakistan team which was also under investigation for the strange death of their coach, but as soon as things went back to normal he along with a few other seniors revolted against Malik, and the regionally biased media fully supported them in their efforts.

Any player can lose his form and all great players go through bad patches during their career, but great players always stand tall when the going gets tough, Younis has never performed in a big tournament.

My main concern about Younis is not his personal form , What bothers me most is his idiotic decision making and the bizzarre ways in which his team loses matches, it has become a behavior pattern of Pakistan team to lose matches from winning positions under YK.

People are criticising YK for his lack of form and the catch he dropped  in the semi final but thats not the issue any player can do those things it’s a part of the game.

My issue is the way he sidelined Umar Akmal and Mohammad Aamer in the match against Australia, what was the point of playing Misbah ahead of Umar when he was not going to play in semi finals, his power play management during the CT was so poor that even a 9 year old could have done a better job, his decision to bat first against a Kiwi side which was completely depleted due to injuries was a serious mistake, his field placement was aweful during the semi finals he had all his ace fielders placed on the boundaries and the Kiwis kept on stealing singles. His decision to bowl out Aamer was also strange, he again marginalized the youngster first by making him bowl 7 straight overs and then not keeping his remaining overs for the batting power play.

It was a straight forward pitch full of runs, there was no movement in the pitch it only had a bit of bounce in it.  Who so ever made the strategy to bat defensively during the power plays should be investigated as Kamran Akmal and Imran Nazir were clearly under the instructions not to go after the Kiwi bowling during the power plays, both the openers had the capability to unsettle the Kiwi bowlers during the power plays but the team management prevented them from playing their natural game.

The jingoistic and biased section of Pakistani media is still targeting Malik and Yousaf, not a word has been said about the poor form of Younis Khan, the way Afridi threw away his wicket and the way Umar Gul bowled. The targets are only Rana Naveed, Mohammad Yousaf and Malik.

Yousaf and Malik were top scorers for Pakistan not only in this tournament but also in the Lankan series, Rana had just one bad match and people are already after his head such is life for Punjabi players in the national team.

There are people who will say in defense of Younis that Pakistan won T20 WC under him, Big deal, we were the finalists in the previous edition and would have easily won it if he had not ran out Imran Nazir and had not thrown his own wicket to a rash shot.

Pakistan’s semi final birth in CT was almost guarnateed since WI never sent their A team and Indian team was struggling with their combination after several key players got injured.

PCB top brass is always hands in gloves with the team management, I don’t expect that they will take any tough action against Younis Khan and the rest of the under performers. Pakistan team can never win consistently until it’s middle order is replaced, Pakistan needs atleast two changes in it’s middle order, Misbah should be dropped and Younis Khan should retire from ODI’s.

Do us a favor and retire Younis Khan.

The Performance of Pakistan’s top players in ICC world cup and ICC Champion’s trophy.

 The average Younis Khan has in Top ICC events should he even be considered as a top player? He is a pathetic ODI player capable of scoring only on flat tracks and against weak bowling sides.

The performance of Pak captains in ICC world cup and ICC Champions trophy.