Younis opens up on what made him a great player

Pakistan batting great Younis Khan has said that his strong desire to score runs, whenever he went out to bat, was a crucial factor behind his successful career as a cricketer.

While talking during a show on a local sports channel, Khan, who is the highest run-scorer for Pakistan in Test matches and the only player to score 10,000 runs in the longest format of the game for his country, opened up about what his attitude during his playing days.  

"For me, I felt that if I don't perform in a match then I would be on the verge of being dropped. When I performed in every match, no one would take notice. So this attitude hardened me so much that I didn't worry about anything," said Khan.

“Whenever I went through a bad patch, I would call my mother and tell her there's an important match coming up and she would encourage. From nowhere, people would be talking and would be ready to put my career in the grave but I would go on and play a big innings," he added.

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The former Pakistan captain, who led Pakistan to World T20 triumph in 2009, also spoke about the burden of expectations.

"I made a sacrifice by never going and making any statements, I just said that performing is my job, I get paid for that and I need to fulfil expectations so I tried to remain positive always, which helped me to survive," he said.

Younis represented Pakistan in 118 Tests, 265 One-day Internationals (ODIs) and 25 Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) over the course of his illustrious career. He accumulated 10,099 runs in Tests, 7249 in ODIs and 442 in T20Is, which helped him become one of the greatest Pakistan batsmen of all-time.