LAHORE: The day when 35-year-old England Test captain Andrew Strauss announced retirement from all forms of professional cricket, Pakistan’s ageing legendary batsman Mohammad Yousuf resolved to return to the international arena.

“I will play in the coming domestic season to prove my form and fitness. And as far as my selection [in national team] is concerned it will be up to the selectors,” Yousuf, who became 38-years-old on Aug 27, told reporters here on Wednesday.

The right-handed Yousuf, who last represented Pakistan in a One-day International against South Africa at Dubai on Nov 8, 2010, added that he had already started strenuous training to regain his form and fitness before the start of Pakistan’s first-class cricket season.

A couple of months ago, Yousuf had also appeared in a physical fitness test supervised by national squad’s head coach Dav Whatmore.

However, the middle-order batsman — a veteran of 90 Tests and 288 ODIs — could not impress the coach and other high-ups of the team management. It is to be noted that the master batsman’s fitness and agility in the field has remained quite a weak area during the past few years.

Yousuf, who had announced his retirement on a couple of occasions before withdrawing the decisions, needs 280 runs to reach the 10,000-run mark in ODI cricket. Boasting a healthy 41.71 batting average, Yousuf remains Pakistan’s second highest run-getter in ODI format behind former captain Inzamam-ul-Haq (11,739 runs).

The classical batsman, who made his Test debut in 1998 against South Africa at Durban, has also amassed 7,530 runs (24 centuries, 33 half-centuries, average 52.29) in the game’s traditional format, only behind two Pakistanis — Javed Miandad (8832 runs in 124 Tests) and Inzamam (8830 runs in 120 Tests). Strauss, after featuring in 100 Tests, has taken the decision to quit while he was leading England’s Test team which during Strauss’s captaincy era also touched top ICC ranking.

On the other hand, Yousuf, who has almost passed his peak time as a cricketer, is now gearing up for a new entry in international cricket.