May 23, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 06, 1428

LONDON, May 22: Pakistan’s senior batsman and former vice captain Younis Khan on Tuesday lauded skipper Shoaib Malik for his superb performance in the Abu Dhabi series against Sri Lanka and said he was delighted with the young all-rounder’s approach towards the game.

“I am very pleased for Shoaib Malik that he was able to win in Abu Dhabi,” wrote Younis in his weekly column for a leading cricket website ‘bigstarcricket.com on Tuesday.

“There would have been a lot of pressure on him so it will give him and the team a lot of confidence.”

“I’ve also been keeping in touch with the guys in Abu Dhabi, especially Umar (Gul). I was very pleased to see they won the series against Sri Lanka.

“I’m always happy when Pakistan wins whether I’m playing or not. It’s good for team morale that we keep winning, and Sri Lanka are a tough side also, especially in those conditions.”

“I have been talking regularly with the chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed, not necessarily about my availability or anything like that, just about Pakistan cricket in general.

“He was the one who first supported me to play for Pakistan in 1999, before he was a selector. So I will always appreciate what he did for me.”

Commenting on his stint with English county Yorkshire, Younis wrote: “After my first month of county cricket it’s nice to be able to say Yorkshire are top of the league and that I’m feeling in good form.

“I’m enjoying life very much. Obviously the World Cup wasn’t a good time for me so it has been nice to have a change of scenery, start scoring runs and winning matches again. And I was married on March 30 so life is quite different now.”— Agencies