The myth of Younis Khan missing the 2010 Australian tour to save his career

[The_Odd_One]

Younis did not avoid the Australian tour of 2010 because it was tough. That’s just a speculation which should be put to rest for good.

Here is the actual series of events that took place.

<b>2009 T20 WC</b>
Pakistan won the T20 world cup and Younis Khan became a hero. People even started comparing him with Imran Khan as both won world cups for their country. He was easily the second most popular cricketer in Pakistan after Afridi. I can testify to it because I was at the Karachi International when Pakistani team was departing for SL. There was a huge crowd awaiting Younis Khan’s arrival at the airport. Younis showed up quietly in a yellow cab with a very old and torn suitcase. I tried to approach him but he was gone within a minute.

<b>SL Tour 2009</b>
Pakistan lost the test series 2-0 and ODI series 3-2. It was a shocking loss as Pakistan had just won the T20 world cup and expectations were much higher.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/iprsavaus2009/engine/series/403361.html

<b>ICC Champions Trophy</b>
Pakistan lost to NZ in the 2nd semi-final. Pakistan lost to Australia in their final group match which knocked India out of the tournament.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/374074.html

<b>Match-fixing Allegations</b>
Jamshed Dasti blamed Pakistan for match-fixing in the Champions trophy. Younis called these allegations absurd and claimed that he was deeply hurt by them.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/10/06/cricket.pakistan.fixing.champions.trophy/index.html?iref=nextin

<b>NZ ODIs in the UAE</b>
NZ won the ODI series 2-1. An alliance was forming against Younis. 8 to 9 players took an oath to not play under Younis anymore.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/series/426717.html

<b>Resignation from Captaincy</b>
Younis resigned from captaincy because <b>he believed that he had lost command over his team</b> and further revealed that he was taking a break from cricket.

<b>NZ Tour</b>
Mohammad Yousuf led the team. Younis did not play any test <b>despite averaging 70 in his previous tour of NZ</b>. When Pakistan toured NZ again in 2011, Younis returned under Misbah and averaged 59.

<b>Australian Tour</b>
Mohammad Yousuf led the team. Younis did not play any test <b>despite averaging 43 in his previous tour of Australia</b>. Note that in 2010 Australian team did not have McGrath and Warne. Both were there in Pakistan’s previous tour. Younis did not get a chance again to play against Australia in Australia. Since 2010, India has visited Australia twice. Pakistan has not visited even once.

<b>His career would have been over had he toured Australia in 2009</b>
Misbah became captain after that tour even though he failed spectacularly in Australia.

Yousuf had a disastrous tour of Australia both as a captain and as a batsman. He still played in the 2010 English tour.

Again, it is just a speculation which has no grounds but there is plenty of evidence that supports the opposite.

<b>Conclusion</b>
The allegation that Younis avoided the Australian tour to prevent his stats from taking a hit is completely false considering that once the swamp was drained and Pakistan had a stable team under Misbah, Younis did not miss a single away tour.

Here is the list of tough tours in which Younis played afterwards:
NZ tour in 2011
WI tour in 2011
SA tour in 2013
England toured in 2016
NZ toured in 2016

Apparently, he was not concerned about damaging his stats while touring these countries but he was only concerned about getting exposed in the Australian tour of 2010. Does anyone seriously believe in that anymore except Mohammad Yousuf who started it back in 2010?

http://www.pakpassion.net/ppforum/s...is-Khan-ran-away-from-NZ-Aus-test-series-quot

 

[Slog]

He did come back for the ODI series

Though I think the issue is that 2-3 months prior to the tour I had been reading on newspapers that behind the scene younis wanted to avoid the tough away tours and coincidentally same thing happened 3-4 months later

Also...wasn't there rumours that team management and coaches were trying to reach him and he had gone finishing and disappeared off face of the earth??