It was a slog-sweep followed by a sweep of conventional variety that brought the curtain down on two careers within minutes of each other. Still, even if Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan had the liberty to write their own script for the swansong, they would not have been able to do a better job of it than the manner in which it all came about: a thrilling finish on the right side of the line that separates success from the rest.

That the team was the first Pakistani outfit to register a series win in the Caribbean is hardly a thing to remember because of the net strength of the West Indian side, but it did provide a much-merited shade of symbolism to the era of Misbah’s captaincy. He ended up as the longest-serving captain with 56 Tests, and the most successful with 26 wins. Let’s leave for some other time — maybe for the historians of tomorrow — the quantity-versus-quality debate which in effect is a Misbah-versus-Imran debate.

On his part, Younis became on tour the first to cross the hallowed 10,000-run mark in terms of career tally, and finished off the last Test becoming the only Pakistani fielder to have ever taken 10 catches in a series. Interestingly, Pakistan’s top three run-getters — Younis, Javed Miandad and Inzamamul Haq — are also the top catchers in that same order with 139, 93 and 81 against their names.

Statistics can bring into stark relief the impact that Misbah ul Haq and Younis Khan had on Pakistan cricket

The matter of personal glory apart, the departure of Misbah and Younis — aptly and popularly titled ‘MisYou’ by social media — is an ominous sign for Team Pakistan. While the fans of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle may continue to fight over the proprietary rights, we don’t seem to be in a position to move on lightly, saying “the graveyards are full of indispensibles.”

The MisYou element was unique in terms of the team’s dependence for such a long time. Let’s take the statistical route to see how seriously lopsided it was. Without taking anything from the enormity of their numbers, the fact that the two together scored 15,321 runs, including 44 centuries and 72 fifties, at a cumulative average of 50.06 per innings, means next to nothing.

To have any chance of quantifying the dependence factor, we need to set the cut-off date at Nov 12, 2010, that marks the beginning of not just Misbah’s captaincy tenure, but also his Test career in practical terms — he had been on the sidelines because Inzamam, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis were holding the middle order together till then. The first had gone into retirement in the wake of a reported deal with the PCB, Yousuf was elbowed out, and Salman Butt, the captain had committed hara-kiri in England. This is how Misbah got his foot in the door and joined Younis, the survivor.

Since that start against South Africa, Pakistan has played 58 Tests which basically provide the context for and of dependence. Across 114 innings, the team scored 31,909 runs in all, or 279.90 runs per innings. During the same period, Misbah batted in 99 innings, scoring 4,214 runs at an average of 51.39, and Younis scored 4,849 runs across 102 innings at 54.48. The MisYou factor, as such, stands at 9,063 runs at a joint average of 53 per innings.

Across 102 innings when at least one of the two was playing, the MisYou contribution was 88.85 runs per outing. Deducting it from the national average of 279.90 means the remaining eight wickets scored 191.05 runs or 23.87 runs per wicket.The gap between the MisYou contribution and that of the rest is — hold your breath, folks — a whopping 372 per cent.

There were indications enough of age-defying reflexes the two have been showing for some time. Misbah finished his career being the top scorer in his last series at an average of 67.75 with three fifties — two of them being 99s, mind you — and Younis held on to a record number of catches in the slips cordon.

Looking at it from another angle, the runs scored by MisYou represent 28.4pc of Pakistan’s grand total during the period, leaving the remaining eight wickets to share the 76.4pc or 8.95pc each. The MisYou contribution is 317pc higher than the rest since November 2010.

The 26 centuries by MisYou in the same period represent 36.6pc of the total, and their 47 fifties are 33pc of all such scores put up by everyone else in national colour. The dependence, as one can see, was utter and stark.

Fortunate or otherwise is a matter dependent on perception, but the fact is that the dependence was just as glaring till the very last. In the West Indies, the team scored 1,467 runs in six innings or 244.5 per innings. Of these, MisYou scored 393, which represented 26.78pc of the total; just 1.7pc below their overall.

Besides, there were indications enough of age-defying reflexes the two have been showing for some time. Misbah finished his career being the top scorer in his last series at an average of 67.75 with three fifties — two of them being 99s, mind you — and Younis held on to a record number of catches in the slips cordon.

That MisYou went out on a high is beyond debate. What will happen now is a matter of serious debate. The selectors, the coaches and, indeed, the PCB leadership had ample time to locate and groom the replacements. Have they? They have not been seen to be doing that, but let’s wait and watch with positive intent.

Ideally, we should be able to remember MisYou long into the night, but without — repeat, without — missing them on the field. If the system is working, it should be simple. If, that is.

humair.ishtiaq@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, May 21st, 2017