Pakistan Batsman Younis Khan to retire from ODIs

Abu Dhabi, Nov 12: Pakistan’s veteran batsman Younis Khan announced retirement from One-Day Internationals (ODIs) on Wednesday. He made the announcement hours before the start of the England-Pakistan encounter at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

The match will be Younis’ last ODI outing, reports dawn.com.pk. “Today I am retiring from ODI cricket after deliberation with my family, wife, and close friends,” Younis said in a statement.

Younis, 37, was discarded from the one-day team after a poor tour of New Zealand and 2015 World Cup in April, where he managed just 77 runs in six matches. But chief selector Haroon Rasheed argued that Pakistan would need his batting experience against England.

Pakistan’s ODI captain Azhar Ali had earlier told the media that despite Younis’s poor form in the one-dayers, he hoped the senior batsman would come good.

Younis has had a see-saw one-day career, having scored only two hundreds in the last seven years, a record that has led head coach Waqar Younis and support staff to reportedly resist selecting him. Wednesday’s game will be Younis’s 265th ODI, nearly 16 years after he made debut against Sri Lanka in Karachi in February 2000.

Going into his last match, Younis has scored 7,240 runs with seven hundreds and 48 half-centuries. (IANS)