Mohammed Yousuf

Name: Mohammed Yousuf

Birth date: 1974-08-27

Hometown: Lahore, Punjab

Teams: Pakistan, Asia XI, Bahawalpur, Lahore, Lancashire, Pakistan International Airlines, Water and Power Development Authority, Lahore Badshahs, Islamabad Leopards

Debut: 26th Feb 1998

ODI Best: 141*

Test Best: 223

Mohammad Yousuf formerly known as Yousuf Youhana is one of the ‘rags to riches’ stories that you dream of. Despite being born into a life of extreme poverty, with a Christian background, his natural talents shone through. 

Since his debut in 1998, he has been a regular on the Pakistani teamsheet. An elegant batsman, boasting one of the finest cover drives in the game, Yousuf has become one of the most prolific batsman in the last 2 years.

He smashed Sir Vivian Richards most runs in a year record in 2006 with a succession of innings that defied belief – scoring 1788 runs in only 11 matches, including 9 centuries at an average of 99.33.

Providing he can maintain his fitness levels, Yousuf is on track to surpass all the Pakistani batting records in the book. 

In tests, he has scored over 7000 runs at a healthy average. In 2007 he was rewarded for his exceptional record by being named ICC Test Player of the Year  – no mean achievement for a batsman who was playing in a poor side struggling for wins. However in the same year after being dropped for the T20 World Cup he decided to join the breakaway Indian Cricket League. The PCB tried hard to convince Yousuf to come back into the Pakistan cricket fold, but he refused. Eventually after a year in the wilderness, the PCB granted an amnesty to players in the unofficial league prompting Yousufs returned. He was immediately drafted into Pakistan's 15 man squad for a tour to Sri Lanka in June 2009 and finished with 253 runs including one century and one fifty.

When Younis Khan stepped down from the side due to differences with his players, Yousuf was handed the captaincy. He ws given a tough assignment away to New Zealand and then to Australia. While he managed to draw the series against New Zealand against a weakened side, it was the poor performance in Australia that had critics asking for him to step down. A Horrible clean sweep in the test series was partly blamed on Yousuf due to his poor captaincy in Sydney where Pakistan squandered a perfect chance to win in Australia after some bizarre defensive tactics when Australia looked like losing. The one day series was a similar poor showing for Pakistan.