Amongst the present lot Younis Khan is unquestionably the elder statesman of Pakistan batting who not only symbolises what is good and great in batting but also raises his game and his profile to such a height that even a crisis for a while starts looking like a non-event.

Look at his record and you will find that when the team is up against odds he excels taking up the challenge which he savours, the reason why most of his match-winning or game-saving innings are known to have been played in the second innings.

It is because his technique is his own and his cool-headedness helps him handle adversity which in turn enables the team to repair a damaged state of the game to grab back the initiative.

Time and again Younis has proved that and on the first day of the first Test against Australia it was not much different when he entered at the fall of the second wicket with Pakistan not reaching even double figures having lost Mohammad Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad.

Such experienced batsmen like Younis are well aware of the value of building up partnerships and that of survival in the middle when chips are down. Nothing strange for him, since he has been through all for umpteen times in his career and with young Azhar Ali, who made a solid half century, it was a familiar scenario again as the two shared 108 runs for the third wicket.

Younis hops and jumps when playing back and when driving and cutting he strokes the ball using a lot of the bottom hand to guide the ball and that combined with his qualities as a fighter makes him no less an opponent against any attack.

His 25th Test century and his first in seven Tests against Australia now make him the only Pakistan batsman to have scored a century in Tests against every opposition and the 12th in the history to do so.

For Azhar this must have been a memorable experience to watch Younis blunt Michell Johnson, Peter Siddle and the spinners in Nathan Lyon and O’Keefe and allow his junior partner gain confidence and develop a stand to clinch back the initiative.

The wicket having lost the early juice and moisture also helped as Younis progressed to share two fine partnerships, first with Azhar and later on with Misbah. Out-of-form Misbah-Ul-Haq like Younis is a steady player against both spin and pace and his contribution on the first day also owes much to the way Younis cleverly rotated the strike making sure his captain regains his confidence which at the end of the day’s play surely must have given them the feeling that Younis’ valuable contribution in the end with the bat will not go unnoticed.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014