Some retirements leave you feeling older all of a sudden, as if time has just moved on in a leap. There were two such on Sunday night. Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan played their final games, a Test against West Indies at Windsor Park in Dominica.
Younis is the last great batsman of his generation to go. Thirty men scored 4,000 runs in Test cricket in the 2000s. Younis, who made his debut in 2000, was the only one still playing Tests. Younis and Misbah were one of the great partnerships. They started late, because Misbah became a regular member of the team only in 2009 when he was 34 but still scored more runs together than any other pair of Pakistan batsmen. In the long history of Test cricket, only two pairs scored more runs in partnership at a higher average.
Misbah and Younis, scored 3,213 altogether, at 68.36. After Allah, his wife and his children, Younis was the one Misbah wanted to thank in his farewell speech. “It was a very fine journey with him in the middle,” he said. “My name will come with his and be remembered in history.”Younis was one of the finest players Pakistan have had, the first to score 10,000 Test runs, the first to score more than 30 Test centuries. He was always the last man standing for the side.
Misbah, a player who was pretty much the Pakistan Cricket Board’s last choice to be captain, who has led the team well.Misbah, who won more Tests than any other Pakistan captain. Misbah, who never lost a home series. Misbah, who became the only captain in history whose team whitewashed England and Australia.
Their stats not only speak about their greatness but the times that they had led Pakistan through all these years.Misbah scored 59 in his last innings, which took his tally to 5,222 runs in 75 Tests, while Younis ended his career on 10,099 runs from his 118 matches.
A day after Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan ended their storied Test careers by guiding Pakistan to a series victory over West Indies, world media heaped praise upon them.
So did some of the ace cricketers took socail media platform to thank their contribution in world of cricket.
Even , the Indian allrounder, Yuvraj Singh congratulated both of them on twitter.
Good bye two greats of Pakistan cricket @captainmisbahpk and younis khan your contribution towards the game was inspiring to all of us ??
— Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) May 15, 2017